Cheveldayoff reflects on busy trade deadline

WINNIPEG - The decisions a National Hockey League general manager has to make are often difficult. At the trade deadline, the microscope on those decisions is as big as ever.
So by the time that 2 pm CT deadline had passed, Kevin Cheveldayoff had made six trades involving nine players and seven draft picks.
Among those transactions was the return of a familiar face, and the departure of another.
Mason Appleton, who the Jets lost in the Expansion Draft to the Seattle Kraken, is returning to Winnipeg in exchange for a fourth-round pick in the 2023 NHL Draft.
Andrew Copp, who had three assists in Sunday's win over the Chicago Blackhawks, is heading to the New York Rangers.
The ability to get Appleton was a prerequisite for making the Copp trade.
"Our roster is different but the core is the still the core. I certainly believe in those guys," said Cheveldayoff. "We tried several times throughout the course of the year to acquire Mason. He's excited to get back here and to get back into a spot that he knows he flourished in."

Cheveldayoff detailed that he's had discussions at two or three different points in the season with Seattle about bringing back Appleton, who the Jets initially drafted in 2015.
This season with the Kraken, Appleton has six goals and 17 points in 49 games.
"Yesterday when I was able to talk to him, I told him, 'I finally got you back,'" Cheveldayoff said. "He's excited to get back here and to get back into a spot that he knows he flourished in."
In 138 career games with the Jets, Appleton racked up 20 goals and 43 points. He spent much of his final full season in Winnipeg last season on a line with Copp.
Copp played nearly 500 regular season games in a Jets jersey after being drafted by the organization in the fourth round of the 2013 NHL Draft.
"When I talked to him, I can still remember going to watch him playing college and the relationships that we've built," said Cheveldayoff. "The guy that you draft and develop and has come through your organization, there's always a little bit of a different feeling in making a trade like that."
In return for Copp, the Jets received two conditional second rounds picks from the Rangers, in addition to a fifth-round pick in 2023. One of those conditional picks the Jets can use in either the 2022 or the 2023 NHL Draft. The other selection can become a first-round pick if the Rangers win two rounds in this year's Stanley Cup Playoffs, and Copp plays at least 50 percent of the games.

On top of those, the Jets also received 6'4", 220-pound centre Morgan Barron, who has 15 points in 25 American Hockey League games this season with the Hartford Wolf Pack.
Cheveldayoff is excited to see what Barron can do, as he's been assigned to the Manitoba Moose.
He's also curious to see another player the Jets acquired ahead of Monday's trade deadline - Zach Sanford.
The 27-year-old Sanford comes to the Jets from the Ottawa Senators in exchange for a fifth round pick in the 2022 NHL Draft. He has 17 points in 62 games this season, but first came on Cheveldayoff's radar during his time with the St. Louis Blues - an organization he played 183 games for between 2017 and 2021.
"He gives us a really solid third line when we get back healthy with Adam Lowry," said Cheveldayoff. "We've had good battles over the last couple of years with St. Louis. And that's where you really start to notice his size and his heaviness and the way he plays, you know, the type of players that we had to play against there in St. Louis."
Cheveldayoff was trying to strike a balance.
In one way, he wanted to reward his current team for staying in the fight and not make it any weaker as they continue to battle for a playoff spot in the Western Conference.

That's why it was important for him to get players like Appleton and Sanford - both possible players for Tuesday's crucial game against Vegas, travel permitting - with Copp on the way out,
"Copp's versatility is certainly something we saw yesterday when he slid to centre and those are the things that made him a very useful player for us," said Cheveldayoff. "From that aspect of things, you lose a little. But I think from a size perspective and a harder-to-play-against perspective, with Sanford's size, it gives us a little different element than we had before."
More Tough Decisions
While those three decisions Cheveldayoff and his team impact the Jets roster immediately, other moves made on this day impact the organization as a whole.
Bryan Little, who despite not playing a game since November 5, 2019 due to a head injury is still the franchise leader in games played with 843, was traded to the Arizona Coyotes along with NCAA prospect Nathan Smith for a fourth round selection in the 2022 draft.
The decision wasn't an easy one, as Little is a leader in community initiatives like Project 11, and is still close with many players in the room. However, removing Little's $5.2 million from Long-Term Injured Reserve will help the Jets in the long run.
It's something Cheveldayoff barely even needed to explain to Little.
"He had a (modified no-trade clause) and Arizona was on it, so we had to have him agree to waive it so that the contract could be traded there," Cheveldayoff said. "The opportunity for your cap space to grow at the deadlines and the different things like that. You could go on and on. For us, it was something that was important and fell into our lap."

As for Smith, who the Jets drafted in the third round of the 2018 NHL Draft, his representative informed the Jets on Saturday that the 2022 Hobey Baker finalist from Minnesota State wouldn't be signing with the team.
Therefore, a trade was necessary.
"He just felt that the opportunity down the middle with our group, with Scheifele, with Dubois, with Lowry, with Perfetti, he just felt that there were going to be better opportunities in other places," said Cheveldayoff. "Lots of teams reached out to his representative to see if he would sign with them. And ultimately it was Arizona we were able to make a deal with."
Call Me in the Morning
The Jets got things going bright and early on trade deadline day, as they announced a trade with the Pittsburgh Penguins just after 8 am CT.
That deal involved Nathan Beaulieu going to Pittsburgh in exchange for a conditional seventh round pick in 2022.

Another defenceman on the way out is Nelson Nogier, who has spent the majority of his career with the Manitoba Moose since turning pro in the 2016-17 season.
Nogier was a fourth-round pick in 2014, and was traded to Los Angeles in exchange for defenceman Markus Phillips - who the Jets have assigned to the Moose.
Injury Update
With Little no longer on Winnipeg's Long-Term Injured Reserve list, only two names remain - Cole Perfetti and Kristian Reichel.
Perfetti hasn't played since February 17 against Seattle.
"He was rehabbing his one injury and this one kind of manifested. It's one that he has to stay off the ice for a while with," said Cheveldayoff. "He's working out, he's doing all those things off the ice. I'm not sure the timeline on seeing him on the ice, the timeline for him to get on the ice will determine when he's back in shape and ready to go."
Due to an "unfortunate quirk," Perfetti missed the criteria in the collective bargaining agreement to be sent down to the Manitoba Moose, leaving him ineligible for the Calder Cup Playoffs.
Reichel, Ville Heinola, and Jeff Malott were all reassigned to the Moose today.