Film Room: Jaxon Cover could go from 'roller hockey phenom' to top-six NHL forward
The concept of development runways is of primary importance in the NHL draft. A player being the best version of himself at 17- or 18-years-old doesn’t bode well for his future as a professional. Teams want players on an upward trajectory in their development, who will build on an already solid skill foundation.
Looking at the full scope of the 2026 NHL Draft class, there’s no prospect with more room to develop than London Knights winger Jaxon Cover.
Not only is Cover’s game already overflowing with skills, but it’s arguably still in its early development stages, making you dream of its potential at maturity.
A few years ago, while his teammates were skating in minor hockey rinks in Ontario, Cover was wheeling around the roller hockey courts in the Caribbean on Grand Cayman Island.
According to a CHL article by Breanna McNeill, he became a “roller hockey phenom, eventually moving into the pro division of the North American Roller Hockey Championships (NARHC). At 10 years old, he began attending skating camps in Toronto, and by U14, he was fully immersed in ice hockey.”
The London Knights eventually selected him in the fourth round of the 2024 OHL Priority Selection and gave him his OHL start last season. Cover played three games and picked up two assists in 2024-25.
A true rookie this season, Cover played a more sheltered role than his draft-eligible counterparts, playing an average of 16 minutes in a middle-six role, while receiving the power play time that his skills demand.
It’s not uncommon for the Knights to prioritize veterans over first- and second-year prospects, even if they’re establishing themselves as top NHL prospects. It’s even more understandable in the case of Cover, considering his more recent introduction to the competitive side of ice hockey.
As a result of his more limited role, especially pre-trade deadline, his production remained lower than some of the other top draft-eligible OHLers. A rebuilding Knights team also couldn’t give him the same offensive support it usually provides its top players.
Despite being the eighth-most used Knights forward this season, Cover finished second on the team’s leaderboard and also posted the second-best points-per-60 in the organization. His production pace also aligned closely with other top draft-eligible prospects in the league, like Ethan Belchetz and Adam Novotný.
We’ve seen high-end talents emerge from lesser roles with the Knights over the years, surpassing expectations and becoming impactful NHL players, like Robert Thomas, Luke Evangelista, Connor McMichael, Josh Anderson, and Christian Dvorak.
Cover could be next in line.
“It's clear that his game would benefit from more strength and power to give him that separation ability and balance when playing through checks, but he's utterly fearless charging through the offensive zone, challenging defenders, even dangling while outnumbered on some shifts,” wrote OHL scout Lauren Kelly in a February report.
“He split the defence multiple times on the same shift, even on a 1-on-5 sequence. And he executed some impressive spins around pressure as he moved to the slot, deceiving defenders with his handling, delaying before passing off, or cutting one way and then another before shooting. His game requires some more development and imagination than others in that back-half of the first round range, which does make him a riskier pick, but it would be a mistake to overlook a player with his skill and potential.”
As triple-threat as it gets
A 6-foot-1-and-a-half winger, Cover’s potential doesn’t only come from his uncommon background and potential for physical growth, but also from an immense skill foundation developed in roller rinks, where holding on to the disc and creativity are encouraged.
The label of triple-threat forward – a player capable of angling, passing, and shooting with the same ease, responding to what the defence affords – fits Cover very well.
The core of his game is his stickhandling skills.
Head up as he attacks up ice and anticipating defenders’ reactions, he shifts the puck in spots where they can’t reach it, putting it in between their stick and skates, out of pokechecking range, or behind them, as he drives counter to their angle of pressure.
He combines these moves with skating skills, chaining crossovers to separate, opening his skates to face a new direction, slowing down before immediately re-accelerating, and using the heel part of his blade to make a micro adjustment to his posture as he drives through. There’s also a high level of deception in his game. He fakes as he drives through to freeze defenders and invite poke checks, baiting them into committing to a move before switching his play.
Contrary to typical CHL danglers, he doesn’t overuse his hands, but instead picks mostly the right times to do so, when opponents are flatfooted or off their defensive angles, when he has a speed difference, or a clear course through a neutral zone forecheck.
Scanning the ice like an experienced OHLer, he spots teammates driving into the slot and relays pinpoint passes with his backhand and by slipping and hooking the puck under the stick. He can throw passes quickly, before the lane closes, but he’s not only focused on what’s happening ahead of him. He will reload the puck to teammates trailing the rush, exploiting the extra space they have. His quick puck handling and deceptive posture also make him especially threatening from behind the net, where he has multiple outlets behind defenders' backs. He leverages those, faking a pass to one teammate arriving high, before sending a pass to the backdoor.
While Cover is not necessarily at his best as a one-timer threat on the power play, his highlight reel features many impressive catch-and-release wrist shots, where he picks the corner of the net from the slot and beats the goalie cleanly. His shooting arsenal also features a strong backhand. Give him an occasion to cut to the slot, and he can roof the puck past the goalie.
The risk
All of these skills combined give Cover a strong theoretical scoring upside at the OHL and NHL levels. The issue with his projection is the word 'theoretical'.
What holds Cover’s projection is a collection of skill flashes during the season. His highlight reel can easily make him seem like a top-10 prospect in the draft, but those highs appeared too infrequently to rank him in such a range, especially considering his more limited role and production.
He could very well break out next season in a bigger role with the Knights, following the trajectory of some of the players we named above. Or, he could simply improve at the expected rate of a 19-year-old OHLer, adding to his production without necessarily improving his NHL projection. That risk is why he’s grading more consistently as a lower A or high B on our board, a potential high-reward project fit for the end of the first round.
Picking the right times to stickhandle through pressure, developing more strength and balance in battles, getting open for passes, and working on his pressured receptions would help Cover increase his impact in games. Those elements, if developed, would increase his minutes and cement him as a top OHLer.
“He retrieved pucks down low and in the slot to extend possessions, forechecked and battled, and skated into lanes to disrupt defenders on the breakout. More frequent scanning could see him become a more refined defensive player, as he didn't pick up a player in the high slot on Niagara's fourth goal. Some good F2/F3 rush creation, positioned well to support the rush and being able to shoot off the pass,” wrote Kelly in that same February report.
The B-game
What makes us comfortable having Cover in our first round is his motor. He’s not one of those creative and skilled wingers who only see opposing plays as cones to practice dangles, quite the opposite.
Despite lacking experience, he’s putting a lot of effort into his play away from the puck, shutting down transition plays, winning pucks on the boards, and transforming forechecking steals into scoring chances. Focused on his rotational game and stick work in the defensive zone, he’s blocking options and making it harder for them to generate meaningful offence when he’s on the ice.
In Elite Prospects Head of Scouting Mitch Brown’s tracking data, Cover profiles as an all-around solid, creative player, capable of generating offence in a variety of ways and holding his own on the boards, generating chances from those situations and from his checking pressure.
Roll the tape below, and you’ll start to see why we believe in Cover.
He’s not just a player generating offence in junior ways, abusing his skill advantage. He’s making difficult plays, sealing pucks from the opposition, absorbing the pressure of multiple defenders, and finding outlets.
In the first clip below, he outmuscles a bigger defenceman, dropping his posture and slipping through his hands to reach a puck. Then, he extends his reach to catch it before another defender could get to it, spins on himself, and goes back to his backhand, as he’s falling, to pass to a teammate in the slot. The play didn’t result in a shot, but the effort and the skills shown here are the ones NHL scouts look for.
Vision. Physical skills. Stickhandling and skating skills. Motor. There’s not much missing in Cover’s skill set. The next step for him is to build an NHL game on that foundation.
The good news? He’s in the perfect system to do it.
London operates like a professional team, rewarding defensive effort and instilling the right habits. This also explains why they slowly bring their top prospects along rather than giving them top-line minutes from the start.
We anticipate that his checking game will continue to improve over the next season, before he transitions to college in 2027-28. Those NCAA years should then help him cement those habits, giving him the runway he needs to make an NHL jump.
In his prime, if Cover continues to push his skills, developing more ways to escape and create off contact and an even better defensive motor, he could become a top-six NHL play-driver, capable of influencing the play on both sides of the puck. He could integrate into a top power play unit role and complement all sorts of different teammates at five-on-five.
A high-upside target, Cover is exactly the kind of upside bet that a playoff-contending team should make at the end of the first round.
