It’s been a whirlwind week in Ottawa.
On Sunday, the Senators saw their franchise shaken up plenty when they traded captain Brady Tkachuk to the Florida Panthers for a package that included the ninth-overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft. Two days later, Ottawa flipped that No. 9 pick for a return headlined by winger William Eklund, a San Jose Sharks seventh-overall pick back in 2021.
On Friday night, the Sens used the other 2026 pick acquired in that Tkachuk deal — No. 25 overall — to select intriguing sniper Jonas Lagerberg Hoen out of the Swedish junior league.
Here’s everything you need to know about the new Senators winger and the club’s No. 32 pick, Jaxon Cover:
25th Overall: Jonas Lagerberg Hoen
2025-26 Team: Leksands Jr., Sweden
Stat Line: 9G-7A-16PTS in 9 games
Bukala’s breakdown:
Here’s what Sportsnet’s Jason Bukala, formerly the Florida Panthers’ director of amateur scouting, said about Lagerberg Hoen on Friday night's broadcast:
“This guy’s a pure shooter. He’s a big body — he’s over six-foot-two, he’s going to grow more into that frame,” Bukala said. “The thing with him that’s going to have to improve: his first three steps out of the gate. He’s going to have to get just a little bit more separation. But he’s got the length, and he knows how to rip it.
“Here’s the other thing: this is scouting at its finest. [Senators head scout] Don Boyd has went out and found a guy, he’s identified him, he’s said to Steve Staios, ‘We really value this guy, and he’s going to put the puck in the back of the net for our organization going forward.’”
What you need to know about the player:
The 2025-26 campaign was a difficult one for Lagerberg Hoen. An ACL injury sidelined the goal-scoring winger for nearly all of his campaign in Sweden. But before he saw his season derailed, the sniper made his potential clear.
“Steve Staios appreciates skill. He wants skill, and he wants skill right throughout the lineup. So now you’re at the part of the draft where you’re identifying the super high-end skill that you want here. … This guy played nine games this year — he had nine goals,” Sportsnet’s Sam Cosentino said on Friday night’s broadcast. “He had an ACL injury, and he’s out. So, you’re taking a bit of a risk here, based on the fact that you haven’t had a full season of viewings on him. … You would have had some inventory maybe from the year previous, and from what he did previous to getting hurt.
“But in terms of the high-end skill, this guy possesses it. He’s a big guy, he can really shoot the puck, he’s had goal-scoring at just about every level. Fascinating pick.”
While Lagerberg Hoen missed the majority of the 2025-26 season, he looked downright dominant one year prior — in 2024-25, the teenager amassed 27 goals in just 38 games for Leksands.
Also key, while the winger was forced to work his way back from injury during the season, he heads into the coming campaign back at full health.
“At the end of the year here, he tested, he’s 100-per-cent healthy, the whole nine yards,” Bukala said Friday. “They got the medical on him, they feel good about it. We’ll see where it goes.”
Interesting fact:
With 16 points in nine games before his injury cut short his season, Lagerberg Hoen finished 2025-26 with the second-best points-per-game pace in the Swedish junior league. His performance a year prior saw his 27 goals finish as the fourth-highest sum in the league.
Go back further in the winger’s history, and it’s clear he’s always had a goal-scorer’s touch. As a 15-year-old, Lagerberg Hoen amassed an absurd 42 goals in 24 games for his under-16 squad, and he followed up that performance with 26 goals in 19 games the next campaign.
“This is where, when you’re building your pre-Draft list a year in advance — like, my staff right now at The Pro Hockey Group, we’ve already identified 73 guys for next year’s draft,” Bukala said Friday night. “Why? Because they popped, they’ve given you something to latch on to already.
“So, for Don Boyd and his staff in Ottawa, when they saw this kid score 27 tucks last year, with his size, and the growth opportunity, they said, ‘Listen, let’s keep an eye on this kid — he’s going to be a sleeper.’ Good on them here.”
32nd Overall: Jaxon Cover
2025-26 Team: London Knights, OHL
Stat Line: 20G-32A-52PTS in 67 games
Bukala’s breakdown:
Here’s what Bukala wrote about Cover in his ranking of the Draft’s top 100 prospects:
There’s some risk in drafting Cover late in the second round, but there’s no doubt he has offensive upside. He needs to round out the rest of his detail as he matures. Cover contributed 20G-32A in 67 regular-season games.
NHL Projection: Third line forward
What you need to know about the player:
Cover arrived at the Draft on the heels of a sterling rookie season with the London Knights. The winger put up 20 goals and 52 points for London in his first full season with the club, putting his offensive promise on display for the OHL juggernaut.
Prior to his OHL debut, Cover spent three seasons at St. Andrew’s College in Aurora, Ont., the same program that helped NHL mainstays like Robert Thomas and Warren Foegele build their game. In 2024-25, the Sens’ newest prospect won the Prep Hockey Conference Championship with St. Andrew’s, the top prize for North American prep school programs.
“He was an inline hockey player, and you can tell that he was an inline guy growing up before he dedicated himself to ice hockey — he handles the puck, he’s really creative, he’s got a flair for the offence,” Bukala said during Friday night’s broadcast. “He’s just learning the nuances of the game, but he’s playing in London for Dale and Mark Hunter — Dale and the rest of that staff, they’re going to coach that into him.
“They clearly trust him a lot, because he was used in a variety of roles this year. … You’re banking on the offence here.”
Interesting fact:
Cover has no doubt had the most unique journey to the 2026 Draft of anyone in his class. Born in Florida, the teenager lived in the U.S. for only a month before moving with his family to the Cayman Islands, where his mother, Nan, was born.
Growing up on Grand Cayman, Cover emerged as a prolific roller-hockey talent on the island. At 10 years old, he started attending skating camps in Toronto, his father Patrick's hometown. But it wasn’t until age 13 that the young prospect started playing ice hockey and attending his first tryouts. He didn’t play competitively until age 14.
Now, four years later, he’s a first-round NHL draft pick.
