The Ottawa Senators’ latest first round NHL draft pick says it was hard work that drove his “unconventional” journey from the Cayman Islands to Canada’s capital. Jaxon Cover has become the first person from the Cayman Islands to be drafted to the NHL. But what makes his accomplishment even more impressive is the timeline in which he’s found himself here. Drafted at the age of 18, Cover has only been skating on ice since 2021 when he was 13 years old. But hockey scouts and coaches say it is Cover’s offensive acumen and skill with the puck that have seen him selected in the first round of the draft. It was in the roller rinks of the Cayman Islands that Cover first started playing hockey, with inline skates strapped to his feet. “What drew me to roller hockey was my dad and I watched him growing up playing ball hockey while he was younger,” Cover said Tuesday, on the second day of the Senators prospects development camp. “It was pretty cool to watch him play some sort of hockey and I just wanted to get in it in some sort of way too, and roller hockey was the closest thing I could get.” With no ice rinks on the island, Cover says he played roller hockey just for fun and took soccer more seriously at a young age. It was at the age of 12 that Cover moved to Canada for school and didn’t skate on ice until 13-years-old. “Once I moved to Canada for school, I kind of started playing [hockey] on open ice and just trying to get a feel for it and then started to fall in love with it.” With less than two seasons in the OHL with the London Knights under his belt, Cover’s talent was already evident to NHL scouts. “It’s an incredible story,” said Ottawa Senators director of player development, Sam Gagne. “But beyond that, he’s a great player, and I think there’s a whole lot of untapped potential there.” Gagne, who has experience playing roller hockey himself, says the skills developed in that version of the game have allowed Cover to accelerate his timeline. “His offensive hockey IQ, you can tell it’s really high. I think roller hockey, it’s a possession game. It’s all about spacing, getting open, and I think that’s a that’s a huge component to being a successful ice hockey player too, is keeping the puck.” In a post on social media, the Cayman Islands government called Cover’s achievement of being drafted to the NHL a proud and historic moment for the nation. The country’s minister for Youth, Sports, Culture and Heritage Isaac Rankine noted, “his success will inspire a new generation of Caymanian athletes to pursue excellence, no matter where their dreams may lead.” “The main thing that I wanted to show to the world is that even though you’re from an unconventional place that if you put your mind to it, you can really do something that you love,” said Cover. The winger says when his name was called during Friday night’s draft, he started crying after hugging his mother. This week, his father and brother are in Ottawa to support Cover as he takes to the ice for the first days wearing a Senators sweater. “It’s been a whirlwind from sitting there on Friday night and waiting for his name to be called, and when it was called, it was just full of emotion,” said Jaxon’s father, Patrick Cover. Patrick says hard work is a trait he’s tried to instill in his two boys and knew overcoming the preconceived notions of being a roller hockey player would be difficult. He credits Jaxon’s mental fortitude in getting to this point. “His dreams have come true. And while that part of his dream has come true, it’s now on to the next phase of trying to make an NHL team,” said Patrick Cover “I know he would love to be home in Cayman and go on Seven Mile Beach and enjoy the sand and the sun, but unfortunately, he has his priorities right now. You can have fun down the road, but right now he has to put in the hard work.”
