If you didn’t know Edmonton Oilers general manager Ken Holland intends to stick to his plan of slowly building a Stanley Cup-contending team around Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, the Hall of Fame executive reminded you Wednesday.

In fact, he reminded you no fewer than a dozen times during his postseason press conference, days after his Oilers were swept out of the Stanley Cup first round by the Winnipeg Jets.

“We’re going to have pain, we’re going to have disappointments, and it’s going to make us better,” Holland said when he wasn’t repeating the phrase “we’re going to stick with it.”

The Oilers have won one playoff series since their run to the 2006 Stanley Cup final, none since McDavid landed in their laps in 2015. Faced with a play-in series in 2020, the fifth-place Oilers somehow lost to the 12^th-place Chicago Blackhawks. McDavid has a Hart Trophy on his resume and has won the Art Ross three times, but postseason success has proven elusive.

In his own season-ending media availability, McDavid said the right things about wanting to continue to grow with the current Oilers core and young complementary players.

"That's the goal. You want to get better each and every offseason,” McDavid said. “I think part of it is adding pieces and I think the other part of it is developing and continuing to grow your game and everyone else's game. For everyone to continue to push to get better.

“The [defenseman Evan] Bouchards of the world, the [forward Ryan] McLeods of the world, those are guys that really need to come in and keep pushing us forward. I got another level I can go to, Leo's got another level, everyone's got another gear they can get to. That's what keeps us pushing forward. Collectively, just finding another gear."

One’s eyes light up when the number under available cap space on CapFriendly.com says the Oilers have around $22 million to allocate this offseason. But then one realizes forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, defenseman Adam Larsson and goaltender Mike Smith are unrestricted free agents, and defenseman Darnell Nurse has just one more year left before he turns UFA.

Whether he brings back the same UFAs (Holland said he’s interested in even retaining Smith) or spends the money on similar players from outside the organization, it might be difficult to improve the Oilers’ supporting cast in free agency.

Holland sounded like a man determined to see more improvement come from within the organization and from players that will be added and developed from the draft. He compared the current Oilers situation to the early ‘90s in Detroit, when the Red Wings were bounced a couple times early in the playoffs. Eventually, they reached a Cup final and a conference final in the years leading up to their Cup championship in 1997.

“I don’t believe we’re one trade away and can start planning the parade,” Holland said.

He recounted how when the Red Wings were ready, he traded for Dominik Hasek one year, Chris Chelios another. He’s not afraid to make the big deal that will put the Oilers over the top; they’re just not close enough in 2021 to do that, in his opinion.

The only problem with the Edmonton-Detroit comparison is that there’s a salary cap, which adds a layer of complication to these plans. McDavid is signed through 2026, Draisaitl through 2025. They count for a combined $21 million against the cap, which will remain flat for at least one season, if not more. As the players around them mature and improve, they’re going to have to get paid. The Oilers might not be able to retain a high-caliber supporting cast for long. Edmonton missed a chance to take advantage of a prime McDavid-Draisaitl season, basically sat out the 2021 trade deadline and couldn’t take advantage of a favorable divisional alignment and playoff system in a Covid-truncated season.

Things will only get more difficult with a return to regular divisions and conferences, and then the one-through-eight playoff format. Cap space is only going to get more difficult to find.

Holland said he wants to “build a program.” Unfortunately, success will only be judged by building a championship team. He can’t expect McDavid and Draisaitl to be as patient as he is, anymore than he can stop them from aging or from getting injured.

Barring a major shakeup of their front office, the Oilers seem set to ride out Holland’s “stick with it” plan. Whether they fail or succeed could serve as a lesson for building other organizations the rest of this decade.