i would not trade schenn for cowen EVER. if any sens fan say they would rather keep cowen then they have no idea what they are talking about, ive watched the last two IIHF world juniors and Cowen looks more like komisarek, always caughing up the puck and never being physical
As an aside, I'll give you a slightly more in depth response:
Who is better today (March 3rd, 2011): Luke Schenn
Who has proven more today (March 3rd, 2011): Luke Schenn
Would the Toronto Maple Leafs make the trade today (March 3rd, 2011): No
Would the Ottawa Senators make the trade today (March 3rd, 2011): Probably not.
Jared Cowen was drafted by Ottawa 9th overall in the draft that you guys picked Nazem Kadri. He was drafted coming off a very serious knee injury, one that caused his draft ranking to fall from the top 3 (where he was rated pre-season) to top 10. The concern was whether he would have lasting effects from his injury. It was, very much a high risk/high reward pick.
Jared Cowen was invited to the World Junior camp in 2010, and made the team. He was only just returning from his knee injury. At that point, his injury had happened 11 months prior. The injury is one where you realistically take a full year to recover, even at that age. He played hurt, and was not very good. It didn't help that the coach had limited confidence in him.
He returned to juniors after that, and finished out the year. Worked on his strength training all summer (the first summer since the draft he was able to do this), and arrived in camp in great shape this season. He could have made the opening roster. Bryan Murray felt it would be bad for his development though, since Cowen had missed a year. If Ottawa had similar policies to teams like the Panthers or Islanders, then maybe Cowen would only have developed into Komisarek. In an ideal world, he'd have gone to the AHL, but he still had junior eligibility, so he was sent back.
Cowen has 40ish points in 48ish games; including 15ish goals. He's been very good in the WHL this season with the Spokane Chiefs. He's the team Captain. He was invited to the World Juniors again, and many commentators (TSN, etc.) spoke highly of his defensive game. Up until the Russia game, I don't believe a single even strength goal was scored against while he was on the ice.
So now we have this 6'5, fully healthy 235 lbs defensive prospect who can skate, shows offensive prowess (that already exceeds Schenn's), and will complement our star player (Karlsson) by being able to shadow and protect him.... There's really no reason to upset the apple cart to upgrade to Schenn. What we give up in potential ceiling, in my view, is not made up for in Schenn's admittedly impressive skill-set as a solid No. 2 shutdown guy (like Adam Foote, except better skater).