Jets get deeper on defence on trade deadline day

WINNIPEG -Hockey is a sport with a number of old sayings. On Monday's NHL Trade Deadline Day, the Winnipeg Jets certainly took one of them to heart:
'You can never have too many defencemen.'
So with no update on Josh Morrissey's status - the 23-year-old left Sunday's game with an injury in the third period and didn't return - and Dustin Byfuglien and Joe Morrow still on the shelf, Kevin Cheveldayoff and his team got to work.
First, they brought in Bogdan Kiselevich from the Florida Panthers in exchange for a seventh-round pick in 2021. Shortly after, they put the finishing touches on a trade with the Buffalo Sabres for Nathan Beaulieu, sending a sixth-round pick in the 2019 NHL Draft the other way.

Just like that, the left side of the Jets blue line gained a 29-year-old in Kiselevich and a 26-year-old in Beaulieu.
"You can never have enough D when it comes to the attrition rate as you hope you go deeper (in the playoffs)," said Cheveldayoff. "So we feel we know these players well with what they're bringing to this organization."
While Kiselevich is in his first NHL season at 29-years-old, he's played in the KHL since 2009 for teams such as Severstal Cherepovets and CSKA Moskva. He played in the KHL All-Star Game in 2013-14, and has 123 points in 393 games.
Internationally, he won bronze at the 2017 IIHF World Hockey Championship and won an Olympic gold medal with the Olympic Athletes of Russia in 2018.
Before Kiselevich signed a one-year deal with the Florida Panthers in June of 2018, Cheveldayoff tried to bring him to Winnipeg.
"Bogdan is someone we recruited actually from the perspective of bringing him over as an unsigned European free agent. You try to get those players at different points in time," said Cheveldayoff. "He was someone when I talked to him today, we talked about the conversation we had 12, 14, 16 months ago, whatever it was.
"Deadline day can present some things that work for you, make sense for you. It was kind of busy right to the end to get some players that are going to fit in."
Beaulieu is in his fourth full season in the NHL, but started playing in the league back in the 2012-13 season with the Montreal Canadiens.
He was traded to Buffalo in June of 2017 and in 89 games with the Sabres, Beaulieu 16 points.
Whether it was these two deals, or any of the other four Cheveldayoff made on Monday, he was in constant communication with Jets head coach Paul Maurice.
After all, he's the one that has to fit all the pieces together.
"A lot of the due diligence that goes in is 'Okay Paul I'm going to throw a name at you, how would you fit him in? Where would you fit him in? Does he fit in?'" Cheveldayoff said. "Sometimes it's not the bigger name that the coaches gravitate toward. It's the ones that fit.
"Paul and I talked quite extensively about these and I'm sure he's got Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C already in the works."