Senators’ surprise first-round pick Jonas Lagerberg Hoen: ‘I almost panicked’
This article originally appeared on hockeysverige.se and has been translated from Swedish to English.
The first round of the 2026 NHL Draft featured no shortage of surprises. But few were bigger than the Ottawa Senators selecting Swedish forward Jonas Lagerberg Hoen with the 25th overall pick.
Most public rankings projected the 18-year-old as a third-round prospect after he missed nearly the entire 2025-26 season with a torn ACL. Ottawa, however, clearly saw something others didn’t.
Speaking with Hockeysverige.se, Lagerberg Hoen admitted he never expected to hear his name called that early.
“I was definitely surprised, but I was also incredibly happy,” he said. “I ran upstairs and woke up my family. They were shocked too, waking up in the middle of the night to that news.”
The draft took place in Buffalo, but Lagerberg Hoen was watching from home in Sweden.
“I had actually just gotten up,” he said. “My agent called, and then I saw it happen on TV. I’d set an alarm about 20 minutes before because I knew there was at least a chance.”
While he tried not to expect a first-round selection, conversations with NHL teams following the NHL Scouting Combine gave him reason to believe it wasn’t impossible.
“I didn’t want to assume I would go in the first round because then you can end up disappointed,” Lagerberg Hoen said. “But after the Combine, I had some good conversations with teams and knew there was a possibility. Even so, it was still a shock.”
The biggest surprise wasn’t necessarily going in the first round—it was that Ottawa was the team making the pick.
“I honestly had no idea,” he said. “There were other teams that had contacted me much more.”
Senators saw him as a player they couldn’t wait on
Ottawa entered the draft with picks No. 9, 25 and 32 after acquiring additional assets in the Brady Tkachuk trade. The Senators ultimately dealt the ninth overall pick to the San Jose Sharks in exchange for William Eklund, making No. 25 their first selection of the night.
According to Senators director of amateur scouting Don Boyd, the organization believed Lagerberg Hoen would no longer be available at No. 32.
“My feeling is we did the right thing at the right time and got the player we really wanted,” Boyd said via the team’s website.
Swedish scout Anders Östberg also offered an intriguing comparison, likening Lagerberg Hoen’s offensive instincts to those of Nashville Predators star Filip Forsberg.
“He’s a bit like Filip Forsberg in some ways,” Östberg said. “He has that ability to pull the puck into a toe drag and shoot. He gets to the right areas to score goals. He’s a natural goal scorer, skates well, and can score from anywhere on the ice. We had excellent interviews with him, and he tested really well in the gym. He checked every box for us.”
For Lagerberg Hoen, hearing that praise from the organization only reinforced that Ottawa believes in his potential.
“They called me after the draft just to congratulate me and told me how happy they were to pick me,” he said.
Ready for his comeback season
Lagerberg Hoen established himself as one of Sweden’s most dangerous junior goal scorers before his injury. During the 2024-25 season, he scored 27 goals in 38 games for Leksand’s U20 team before earning his first international appearances with Sweden.
He followed that up with nine goals and 16 points in just nine U20 games last season and even made his SHL debut before suffering the ACL injury that ended his season in October.
Now fully recovered, he’s signed with Leksand’s senior team, which will compete in HockeyAllsvenskan next season after being relegated from the SHL.
“The plan is to play with the men’s team,” Lagerberg Hoen said. “Of course, I have to prove that I’m good enough. If I don’t, I’ll end up back with the juniors. But I’m really looking forward to the season. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.”
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