Flyers draft: Jaxon Cover and Ryder Cali grew up playing roller hockey in the Cayman Islands. Now they will be drafted into the NHL.

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Ryder Cali and Jaxon Cover were two of 90 players invited to the NHL’s scouting combine in Western New York during the first week in June.

They interviewed with NHL teams, including the Flyers, and members of the media. Together in the same group, they went through fitness testing on Saturday, with Cover finishing in the top 25 in two tests, including fifth in the dreaded Wingate test, and Cali getting on the board for seven tests, tying for first in the right-hand grip test.

Cali and Cover’s hockey careers were intersecting once again. The two had first crossed paths in a locale not often associated with ice hockey greatness — the Cayman Islands.

Like most teenagers who will be selected at the NHL draft in either the first round on June 26 or Rounds 2-7 the next day, Cali got on skates for the first time at approximately 2½ years old. He confesses that he hated it and cried the whole time, but skating has been in his blood — from his mom’s side.

A Toronto native, Fiona McLeod played college hockey at St. Cloud State and then professionally for seven seasons in Switzerland for the Ladies Team Lugano, in what is now the PostFinance Women’s League. It is Switzerland, where she met Cali’s father and where the now 18-year-old Ryder was born.

Around the same time Cali was tying his laces for the first time, more than 5,000 miles away, a 3-year-old Cover was putting on his first pair of skates, too. But instead of steel blades, his boots had wheels, and there was no ice to be found for miles. He fell in love with the game at a learn-to-skate program on the only roller hockey rink in the Cayman Islands.

And it was here, on an island in the Caribbean Sea filled with sandy beaches and wafted by ocean breezes, that Jaxon Cover and Ryder Cali’s first met and where their hockey dreams took hold.

“It was kind of a new thing growing up, because as I was growing up it started getting bigger too, and a lot more people were joining and joining,” Cover recalled in an interview with The Inquirer. “I feel like, especially with how far I’ve come in ice hockey, hopefully I can inspire some kids in Cayman to enjoy the game, and just anyone from an unconventional place of ice hockey to hopefully just enjoy the game and just try getting into the game.”

The two families became close, and the boys played roller hockey with Cover, who is seven months older, developing into a burgeoning roller hockey star at the ripe old age of 6. He played in tournaments across North America while skating against kids older than him, crediting the sport with amplifying his competitiveness.

Cali and his family, meanwhile, moved to Ontario when he was 7 years old, and he swapped his wheels for steel. Needless to say, it was an adjustment.

“I do remember when I moved to Canada, I couldn’t stop. I couldn’t do anything,” he told The Inquirer with a grin. “I was the island boy who just saw ice for the first time.

“I think roller hockey is much more of a skill game; I think that’s kind of where guys like Cover get all their skill from, is playing games like that, where I don’t think there’s as much contact.”

At around 8 years old, Cover and his family would start visiting his grandfather — dad Patrick is from Etobicoke, Ontario — in the same province during the summer. While there, Cover would go to SK8ON Hockey School and, like Cali, he had trouble stopping too.

“It was a pretty weird switch, going from ice to roller,” he said. “I had to get the stopping down. It was a little weird to me not having wheels to just glide on, and it was just like these sharp blades on the bottom of my feet. But it was a lot of fun.”

However, Cover didn’t really start playing ice hockey until he went to boarding school. In September 2020, he began studying at St. Andrew’s College in Aurora, Ontario, with his brother Jaedon; however, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he was unable to play organized hockey that first year.

David Manning, Cover’scoach for the U18 AAA team his final two seasons at St. Andrew’s, said it was actually beneficial for the winger to get comfortable on ice without coaches and the pressure that comes with competing. It helped him work on some of his bad habits and switch from a sport that doesn’t have much stopping to one that thrives on quickness and consistent stopping-and-starting.

“He had some ups and downs [but] there’s a higher level of accountability in terms of like managing the puck,” Manning said. “He very much sees himself as an artist out there, and wants to create and make nice plays. I think there’s a balancing act with that mindset, and also playing the game in a strategic, smart way, and so he worked through that the entire year and had a solid season.”

Cover spent the past season with London of the Ontario Hockey League. Flyers fans should recognize that organization — it’s the same one where Denver Barkey and Oliver Bonk won a Memorial Cup — and Cover played three games that season with the two prospects at the end of the 2024-25 season.

From afar, Manning acknowledged the work Cover has put in — “He had more points in the OHL than he did with my team ... he just keeps getting better” — as the winger dropped 20 goals and 52 points in 67 games with the Knights.

The two kids from the Cayman Islands went head-to-head in one OHL game this season, with Cali getting the upper hand as North Bay won 3-2 in a shootout. But the center came in second in points on the season, finishing with a still impressive 16 goals and 36 points in 47 regular-season games, missing time with a separated shoulder.

Cali did have one more point than Cover, who played five games, in the playoffs, as he finished with four points in 10 games.

Cover will return to London in the fall before heading off to Penn State in 2027 — he wants to study law and go into corporate law after his NHL career is done, of course — but there is plenty of work still to do.

“I feel like I did have to change some aspects of my skating style, and I still do have to change some aspects, because I still do have that roller hockey stride in my game,” he said, adding he wished his roller hockey speed translated better to the ice. “But I feel like it helps my lateral skating a lot, just playing roller, my shiftiness too, and my hands, I feel like I credit my hands a lot to roller.”

Cali, who Canada’s U18 men’s ice hockey coach Drew Bannister called a power forward who is heavy on his stick, will be heading to Providence in the fall and plans to study psychology — he wants to understand the brain and how people work. Maybe it helps on the ice too?

“He’s a bull in a china shop,” said Friars coach Nate Leaman. “I think he’s got that potential. He’s got this big frame ... but I think he’s got a lot of potential that’s untapped. I think he’s got a really good release, he’s got a good IQ, he gets to the net. ... And I think Ryder does a good job of always being around the net in the offensive zone for a big strong moose of a kid.”

And the 200-foot center does not lack in confidence, stating that “I think that’s a big part of my game is forechecking and stealing pucks and turning it into offense. I think I’m the guy you need to win, and I love winning.”

The plan is to do a lot of that moving forward — while donning an NHL jersey.

Cover, a 6-foot-1, 183-pound creative winger, and Cali, a 6-1, 214-pound 200-foot center, are projected to go anywhere from late first round to the second round. As they await hearing their names called to become the NHL’s next generation, the two kids from the Cayman Islands are ready to inspire the generations coming behind them.

“I’m just really honored, and just really humble about it,” Cover said. “Just trying to get better every day, and just make sure my game progresses. And it’s really cool; if you told me I’d be in this spot, maybe even two years ago I wouldn’t believe you.

“I just dedicate a lot of my hard work to it, and just how much I love the game, and hopefully I can inspire some kids in unconventional places to play the game, and hopefully my story encourages kids like that.”