It wasn’t easy for Winnipeg Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff to watch Mason Appleton leave the organization through the Seattle Kraken expansion draft on Wednesday.

Appleton, 25, is a player the Jets drafted in the sixth round in 2015, who worked his way up through the American Hockey League to become a regular in the NHL over the last couple of seasons.

That’s the kind of success story hockey scouts and general managers love.

And it makes it hurt a little more when that player is gone.

“First and foremost, tremendous thanks to Mason Appleton for the work that he put into our organization and the contribution that he made,” Cheveldayoff said in his pre-NHL draft media availability on Thursday.

“It was a tough call to Mason to tell him that he was a selection.

“On the eve of the draft, we end up losing a player that was drafted, that went through our development process, that became a key contributor in the American League and then a solid, key, contributor in the National Hockey League. It just kind of underscores what the process of this weekend (the NHL draft) is all about. I’m proud of how Mason has come through the organization and I wish him all the best.”

Appleton had 12 goals and 25 points in 56 games while playing on a checking line for the Jets in 2021.

While losing Appleton hurt, Cheveldayoff couldn’t help but smile a bit about how the expansion draft went down, in general. The Kraken chose not to take Jets defenceman Dylan DeMelo — who Cheveldayoff agonizingly left unprotected — and that was good news for a team that is already thin on the blue line.

“It was a pretty joyous call to make to Dylan DeMelo to say that he was still part of the Jets,” Cheveldayoff said. “Lots of emotion there.”

The Jets chose to protect 6-foot-7, 230-pound, 23-year-old rookie defenceman Logan Stanley over DeMelo, a steady 28-year-old who has three years left on a $12-million contract he signed in 2020.

It was obvious to Cheveldayoff that Stanley would get taken if he were exposed, but there was a chance DeMelo would not. It turned out to be a good use of intel.

“We had a lot of calls on Logan to see if we’d be interested in trading him as opposed to potentially losing him,” Cheveldayoff said. “So we went through that process and it became very apparent that even if Seattle wasn’t the ultimate destination, there was a lot of places that might have reached out to Seattle to go after him in that regard.

“It doesn’t make it any easier to have to make that decision to have to put your list in, but there’s always gonna be risks. We knew, going in, that we were gonna lose a very good player. You’re on pins and needles there a little bit after you hit send but you let the process play itself out.”