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Senators stun with the final pick in the first round of the draft.
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- Senators stun with the final pick in the first round of the draft.
Senators stun with the final pick in the first round of the draft.
A lot of hockey fans will be waking up on Saturday morning and hearing the name Jaxon Cover for the first time after a surprise pick closed out the first round of the 2026 National Hockey League Entry Draft on Friday night.
That's because with the final pick in the first round, pick #32, the Senators went way off the board and selected Jaxon Cover. Cover was a surprise pick for a variety of reasons but perhaps none is more relevant than the fact that the 18 year old only started playing ice hockey a few short years ago.
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Cover, who was born in Miami but raised in the Cayman Islands, actually first fell in love with the sport while playing on roller skates. You can see just from the ease with which he moves on those skates that he is incredibly talented, but is that enough to earn a spot in the NHL?
Well the Ottawa Senators certainly seemed to believe so after Cover had a breakout season as a member of the London Knights. In 67 games this past season Cover had 20 goals and 32 assists, totaling 52 points and showing that he has adapted to the game on ice very quickly.
This was a risky pick on the part of the Senators with most pundits ranking Cover much, much, lower than 32. Patrick Bacon of Top Down Hockey had him at 59th overall and that was one of the highest projections I had seen for Cover coming into this draft.
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It is of course very easy for the Senators to scout a player based in their home province however, so they may very well have seen something that other teams did not
You can see the incredible moment Cover was selected just below:
