When the Senators traded Brady Tkachuk to Florida last Sunday, they acquired a pile of draft capital. 

The deal left them flush with picks in round one of the 2026 NHL Draft, but earlier this week, they almost immediately traded the most valuable pick, the 9th overall selection, to San Jose. They picked up winger William Eklund, who can the club help right away.

But they also accepted that it was time to start restocking their prospect shelves.

So in the Eklund deal, they also secured two prospects they liked: former London Knights star forward Kasper Haltunnen and the rights to forward Brandon Svoboda, who just finished his second season at Boston U.

Then on Friday night at the draft, while many expected they might deal away the 25th pick for more immediate help, they kept their eye on the future again, drafting Swedish right winger Jonas Lagerberg Hoen from Leksands IF Jr.

Finally, due to an NHL ruling in the Dadonov case, they had no choice but to make their pick at 32. With that, they selected London Knights forward Jaxon Cover, the player I liked most at that draft position (even a blind squirrel finds the odd acorn).

Lagerberg Hoen is something of a wild card to say the least. Two seasons ago, he had elite Cy Young-like numbers with 27 goals and 3 assists in 38 games in junior. Back with the same club this past season for his NHL draft year, he was expected to completely light it up. In the first 9 games, he did. He had 9 goals and 7 assists before suffering a knee injury.

So the viewings of LH have been limited and that surely affected his draft rankings. Some had him listed as low as the 70s and 80s. On the other hand, before anyone panics, he was ranked 19th by NHL Central Scouting among all draft-eligible European skaters.

The pick does conjure up memories and comparisons to Tyler Boucher. Five years ago at the weird 2021 NHL Draft, the Senators had the tenth overall pick and were smitten with Tyler Boucher, a good skating physical forward who had also run into injury trouble in his draft year. The Sens felt the injury issues affected his draft stock, and were also concerned that if they waited until their next pick, another team would have taken him. 

The Sens reached for Boucher, well ahead of where he was ranked by most scouts and analysts and unfortunately, Boucher has never been healthy enough for long enough to prove the Sens right or wrong. 

The good news is that Lagerberg Hoen, at 6-foot-3, 185 pounds, is fully healthy again and ready to play a full season in Sweden next year in the second-tier Allsvenskan.

Frankly, it's hard to believe he was able to put together such an impressive highlight reel in just nine junior games.

Sens head amateur scout Don Boyd seemed thrilled to have selected him where they did.

“We really liked him," Boyd said. "He’s a goal-scorer. He can really skate, he can score from everywhere, and he’s a competitive guy. We had great interviews with him; he was great in the gym, and he checks all the boxes.”

There were only six picks before the Sens would choose again, but Boyd felt like there were a couple of NHL teams who might have jumped on Lagerberg Hoen if they had waited until their next pick at 32.

And that brings us to Cover whose backstory might be the best of the entire first round class. If his name didn't rhyme with clover, I might have billed it as our Cover Story. As much as referring to our national sport as ice hockey makes Canadians cringe, I'm afraid we have to for this story.

The six-foot-2, 183-pound winger only began playing organized ice hockey five years ago after first excelling in roller hockey in the Cayman Islands.

“It’s a great story, but we drafted him because we believe he's got ability, we believe he's got skill, we believe he's going to have a chance to be an offensive guy,” Boyd said.

Scouts rave about his athleticism, creativity, and like Lagerberg Hoen, his snap shot is off the charts. Because he is still relatively new to ice hockey, his ceiling on his potential for improvement might be better than almost anyone in the draft. And he's already pretty good. 

Wearing Sidney Crosby's number 87, Cover's puck skill, fierce snap shot, and fearlessness at the net are impressive, especially for a young man with only five years of organized hockey. He posted 20 goals and 52 points in 67 games for the Knights in 2025-26. And there's been ho shortage of NHL stars to come out of OHL London.

The NHL did a great feature on Cover here.

So on day one of the NHL Draft, the Sens beefed up on future skill. 

The NHL Draft continues on Saturday. The Senators don't have a second round selection but they have three in the third, then one pick in the fourth, fifth, and sixth rounds.

By Steve Warne
The Hockey News