Making it all the way to the Conference or Stanley Cup Final is an amazing feat. And when you win the biggest prize, there are no worries and no regrets.

But when you come up just short, the effect of coming so close is quickly mixed with the reality of facing an incredibly short offseason.

Now add to that the pressure of the salary cap era and all of the drama that surrounded the Edmonton Oilers’ run, their historic comeback in the Final and the fact that general manager Ken Holland stepped down and been replaced, in the interim, by CEO of hockey operations Jeff Jackson.

All of a sudden, you are staring at just a couple of months to handle a lot of business.

But Jackson and the Edmonton management staff have done an excellent job navigating those waters. In just over three weeks, the Oilers have gone through the 2024 NHL Draft, re-signed key players in Calvin Pickard, Connor Brown, Mattias Janmark, Troy Stecher, Corey Perry, and Adam Henrique and brought in big pieces in Viktor Arvidsson, Jeff Skinner, Josh Brown and Matthew Savoie, along with a few other signings.

“The whole management staff did a great job,” Connor McDavid said Monday at teammate Zach Hyman’s charity golf event. “They’ve had a great offseason so far. It’s been short, it’s been hurried, but I think the small time they’ve been at it, they’ve done great things.

“You know, keeping as many guys together is a good thing in the salary cap area. It’s tough to do that, and he’s done a great job of finding a way to do that, for the most part. Obviously, losing a couple of guys, which is always unfortunate, but unfortunately part of the hockey world we live in.”

Not only has Edmonton’s management been swift with their signings, they have done so at a very reasonable price. It looked like a steep hill to climb to bring in all of the names above. But Jackson and his staff have been aided by players willing to return or sign team-friendly deals that allow them to do exactly that. Skinner signed a one-year, $3 million deal after being bought out by Buffalo, Janmark returned for three years at a $1.45 average annual value, Perry signed for one-year, $1.4 million to get another run at the Cup late in his career, Connor Brown and Pickard each came back for only $1 million, and the list goes on.

“I think ‘Jax’ has been great, obviously, throughout the year. This year, working with ‘Kenny’ and making moves, whether it be bringing in [coach Kris Knoblauch], or bringing in other guys at the deadline, so I thought [he] and ‘Kenny’ did a great job during the year,” Hyman said. “And then obviously, ‘Kenny’ leaving, ‘Jax’ kind of took the mantle and has done great bringing in new guys making your team better, bringing guys back. And I think it’s it’s also a testament to the team that guys are willing to come back on team-friendly deals and take discounts to try and win. And I think they see how special it is to play in Edmonton.

“It’s now become more of a destination to play. That’s really awesome to see.”

The Oilers are taking nearly a full-on run-it-back approach to the 2024-25 season. Along with bringing back a ton of players, they really only lost Ryan McLeod, who was part of the trade that brought the talented prospect, Savoie, to Edmonton on July 5. They have all of the key pieces from their Stanley Cup Final run, a coach with some experience now under his belt and all of the motivation in the world after pulling together to climb out of the cellar of the NHL standings early in the season and eventually overcome a 3-0 series deficit to force Game 7 against the Florida Panthers.

In other words, they are a tight group that has been through a lot together and should be a very tough team to play against next season.

“Something in the Alberta water or something, eh?” Connor Brown joked. “When you get a group like that, that’s incredibly motivated and close and tight, I think you kind of see people want to be part of it. And I think that’s kind of what you what you’ve got with some of the signings here.

“And you know, we’ve got competitive players coming in and they want to make their mark and make their mark in the Stanley Cup playoffs obviously. That’s kind of, as a player, what you shoot for so, like you said, I think there’s something going on there and we feel it in the room. You being in the city I think you realize the city feels it, and it’s just a lot of fun is really what it boils down to.”