FEATURE: Six important weeks

EDMONTON, AB - In a league that's governed and kept orderly through a salary-cap system, it's the little things -- the small-but-impactful signings, the under-the-radar trades and casual-but-crucial conversations between executives in the offseason -- that can have the biggest year-over-year impact in determining an NHL team's success.

From now until the first few days of Free Agency in early July, General Manager & President of Hockey Operations Ken Holland and his management staff are ready to leave no stone unturned when it comes to finding those small but impactful advantages that can push the Edmonton Oilers even closer to their ultimate goal of winning the Stanley Cup.

"From the time your season's over until the middle of July is key in rebuilding and remaking your team for the upcoming season," Holland said, speaking with Bob Stauffer on 630CHED's Oilers Now.

Holland explained how he and his management staff are hitting high gear as the players go through the quiet stage of their schedule following their second-round exit from the Stanley Cup Playoffs, hoping to best position the Blue & Orange for another run next season with some shrewd and smart off-season moves over an important six-week stretch between now and the end of the first week of free agency.

"We're going to try here over the next six weeks to make moves and make the team the best that we can within a salary cap. Obviously, we've got challenges. Probably half the teams in the League are in the same position as we are right up against it. You've got to make difficult decisions."

At the heart of helping satisfy Edmonton's high ambitions for next season begins for Holland with setting the Oilers up for a strong 82-game regular season to make it back into the playoffs for the fourth straight season under his guidance as GM & Pres. of Hockey Ops.

"Ultimately, you've got to do it on the ice," Holland said. "You've got to be good enough to be in the tournament and you've got to be in the top-16, but there are no guarantees or moves where you can all of the sudden you can guarantee that you're going to go win the Stanley Cup.

"At the end of the day, we're going to try to put the best team we can on the ice and the first order of business is to be a playoff team. Play your way into the playoffs, and then when the playoffs start, you've got to go do it."

After debriefing the 2022-23 NHL season with his players and coaches during exit interviews over the course of this past week, Holland is taking that feedback into what will be another pivotal offseason for an Oilers team that has minimal room to work with when it comes to getting the most out of the salary cap to ice the best Oilers team possible.

The core of Leon Draisaitl, Connor McDavid, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Zach Hyman and Darnell Nurse remains locked in after each player experienced a career year individually in 2022-23 -- a rate of return that will need to be followed up by each respective player to best help Edmonton's bid for another post-season spot next season.

Holland added two more important pieces to that leadership group with two of his biggest moves during his tenure as general manager, signing and extending Evander Kane until the end of 2025-26 before giving up a top defenceman (Tyson Barrie), a top prospect (Reid Schaefer), a first-round pick and a fourth-round pick to acquire Mattias Ekholm and a sixth-round pick from the Nashville Predators for their playoff run and the Swede's services for the next three seasons.

"Every offseason is important because this team's really in its window," Holland said. "We'll go to work on it and try to find solutions here to put the best team we can on the ice."

The Oilers will be aided by having a little bit of extra capital to work with this summer with the salary cap expected to increase by $1 million to $83.5 million and an extra $2.25 million set to come off their books following the conclusion of Andrej Sekera's buyout ($1.5 million) and the club's retention on Milan Lucic's contract ($750,000).

Despite that, the Oilers still have plenty of players needing new contracts this offseason -- three of which are restricted free agents in Evan Bouchard, Ryan McLeod and Klim Kostin -- and a goaltender in Stuart Skinner, whose three-year contract signed back in December with an average annual value of $2.6 million kicks in this upcoming campaign.

Video: OILERS TODAY | Season Wrap 05.18.2023, the Oilers have just shy of $6 million in cap space to fill out their 23-man roster for the 2023-24 NHL season.

With a strong consideration for the salary cap, Holland is keen to bring back these depth contributors like Derek Ryan, Nick Bjugstad and Kostin, who combined for six goals in the 2023 Playoffs and were part of an Oilers forward group that had all 12 of its skaters score at least 10 goals during the regular season.

Similarly, the drive of these players to compete for a Stanley Cup as members of the Oilers next season was a major takeaway for Holland from his exit interviews.

"Absolutely," Holland said resoundingly. " I think one of the things that we really have is great chemistry, and I think all the players on our team and in our room really enjoy one another; they enjoy the passion of playing in a Canadian market with a passionate fanbase.

"I think for the most part, all of them would love to be here. Now, saying all that, obviously we've got big decisions to make because of the cap. I'm going to meet with all these players and talk to their agents here over the next week to 10 days to see if we can at least keep some of them because they were big pieces."

Holland also spoke to the importance of internal growth within the organization and how the club's large group of prospects on the verge of full-time NHL roles can be a part of the solution. That group includes Dylan Holloway, Phillip Broberg and Bakersfield Condors standout Raphael Lavoie, who's in need of a new contract and will be waivers-eligible in 2023-24 after recording 25 goals and 45 points in 65 games with Edmonton's AHL affiliate this past season.

Beyond the value of what they can bring to the club, younger players on the team also provide plenty of value to a Cup-contending team that's up against the salary cap.

"Youth within your organization is critical for two reasons," Holland said. "Number one, it plays cheap, and number two, they make your team and they get better. That's how your team gets better."

Following exit interviews, Holland and his staff have been hard at work this week reaching out to players' agents for discussions about what it will take for some of these pending free agents to re-up with the club and be a part of their plans for another crack at lifting the Cup next season.

Holland is approaching Edmonton's opportunity to build on their Cup-contending roster on a day-to-day basis over these next six weeks of the offseason, hoping the small short-term moves will have larger long-term impacts.

"Today, I'm talking to some agents and we're planning," he said. "I just think if you take care of each day, the big stuff takes care of itself. If you're so caught up with what's one, two and three years down the road, you'll miss taking care of the little things, because whether it's on the ice in those little turnovers or those undisciplined penalties, those little things can determine if you're out or someone moves on. It's the same thing in the general manager's chair -- it's all those little things because the little moves you make can sometimes have a big impact on your team."

Holland plans to make the trip out to Kamloops, BC in the coming days for the Memorial Cup, which begina on Friday, before taking in the NHL Scouting Combine from June 4-10 in Buffalo, NY.

Despite having no Oilers prospects in the Memorial Cup this year and owning only the 56th-overall selection in the first five rounds at the NHL Draft in Nashville later in June, Holland knows from his 30+ years of experience in the NHL that small conversations between executives at events like these can lead to future opportunities to make a deal.

"I'm going to watch some games, but I'm sure they'll be a few managers around there," Holland said. "You never know when you're just sitting around having a chat what might come up.

"There's the Combine and we'll go there for a couple of days. We don't have a first and we don't have a third or a fourth, so I'll go to the Combine and maybe bump into some general managers and start to kind of see what some other teams are thinking about their teams and kind of go through the process."