Two Caribbean kids who loved hockey and ended up skating toward the NHL draft

Jaxon Cover and Ryder Cali both showed up to the NHL’s Western New York scouting combine in June wearing numbers that didn’t yet belong to any NHL team. The 90 invitees spent a week running tests, talking to teams, and answering questions—skills that matter just as much as skating speed in today’s league. Cover landed in the top 25 on two fitness challenges, including fifth place on the punishing Wingate test, while Cali registered top marks in seven drills, tying for best right-hand grip strength. Their strong results hinted that raw talent alone didn’t bring them to Buffalo; hours of unseen work did. Both players trace their hockey roots to the Cayman Islands, where ice rinks are rarer than palm trees in Buffalo. Cover, the older by seven months, first laced up roller skates on wheels because the only hockey program available used gym-floor plastic instead of frozen ponds. Cali, on the other hand, started with steel at age two and a half—though he admits the first few minutes involved tears instead of cheers. Their families became close neighbors on the island, so the two boys grew up treating roller hockey like a backyard pickup game. Cover’s early tournaments took him across North America, pitting him against bigger, older kids. He credits that constant challenge for sharpening his quickness and creativity. Cali’s path changed when he moved to Ontario at seven. Swapping wheels for blades felt like learning to walk again—he couldn’t stop, couldn’t turn, and definitely couldn’t hide his island accent on the ice. Roller hockey rewards agility more than body checks; Cali learned to play a heavier, grinding style once he arrived in Canada. Cover faced the opposite adjustment when he started boarding school in Aurora, Ontario. Without the familiar grip of wheels, his stride felt awkward at first. When the pandemic canceled his first season of organized hockey, the pause gave him time to fix habits rather than chase wins.Cover’s coach at St. Andrew’s saw the gap between raw skill and game sense. “He likes to create pretty plays, ” the coach noted, “but he had to learn when to slow down and play smarter. ” By the time Cover joined the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League, he had smoothed out his edges. Over 67 games he piled up 52 points, proving that roller hockey’s lateral quickness can translate into NHL-caliber puck movement. Cali, meanwhile, spent the season anchoring North Bay’s third line, scoring 16 goals and 36 points despite missing time with a shoulder injury. The two split one OHL meeting, Cali’s team winning a shootout thriller. The bigger story is where they started. Someone once said hockey is a sport invented by Canadians to keep kids busy in winter. Cover and Cali grew up where winter never arrives, yet they still found a way to fall in love with the game. Cover plans to study law at Penn State while he climbs the hockey ladder, hoping to balance a future outside the rink with the grind inside it. Cali will head to Providence to study psychology, a choice that might someday help him read opponents the way he reads opponents’ sticks. Both players speak openly about wanting to show kids from “unconventional” hockey places that the dream is still possible. Their combine results give scouts one more data point to weigh before the 2024 NHL draft. Projected anywhere from late first round to second round, neither kid acts like the numbers define them. Cover keeps talking about roller hockey stride showing up in his skating, while Cali jokes that his future linemates might have to tape his stick handle to the puck. At the end of the day, their story is less about draft position and more about persistence—turning a hobby played on wheels in the Caribbean into a shot at NHL ice.