Edmonton Oilers: 3 storylines to watch this season

theScore's NHL editors take a look at three storylines to watch for each NHL team heading into the regular season.

Can the Oilers defend? Like, at all?

In every season since 2006-07 the Edmonton Oilers have been in the bottom ten among NHL teams in goals allowed per game, with the exception of the lockout abbreviated season in 2013. In the 48-game 2013 season, the Oilers were merely the 11th worst defensive team.

Last season, Dallas Eakins' first as the club's head coach, the Oilers were at it again and allowed more goals against than any other team in the league.

So can the Oilers become at all difficult to score on this season? 

Their goaltending duo of Ben Scrivens and Viktor Fasth should prove sturdier than the three-headed mixture of Devan Dubnyk, Jason LaBarbera and Ilya Bryzgalov were to start last season. 

The addition of defenders Nikita Nikitin and Mark Fayne could help, though only Fayne has proven he can handle top competition successfully, and he's likely to miss Andy Greene's calming presence with the Oilers. 

Up front the Oilers remain thin down the middle, which makes it pretty difficult to control play in the Western Conference.

The Oilers have an electrifying mix of offensive skill, but unless this club can develop some structural backbone and commit to playing solid hockey in their own end of the rink - they're not going to win more often than they lose.

One more superstar?

Taylor Hall is a bona fide superstar and probably a top-five all around winger in hockey. Don't let anyone tell you differently.

Besides Hall though, the Oilers have a myriad of talented pieces, but none of them have taken that next step into stardom. 

Center Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has skill to burn, but gets pushed around by some of the bruising pivots in the Western Conference. Jordan Eberle can stick-handle in a phone booth, but has pronounced two-way issues and may have already hit his offensive peak. Nail Yakupov has all the physical tools and is a joy to watch, but clearly hasn't put it all together yet.

For a team that spent a seemingly endless number of seasons mired in decrepitude, stuck cynically selling hope while intentionally tanking; the Oilers only have one real superstar on the roster. 

Yakupov and Nugent-Hopkins still have time to find their ceiling, but if this club hopes to rapidly improve - which, is essentially what Oilers fans hope for every summer - some of their young core pieces need to begin to realize their potential.

Contracts, contracts, contracts

Justin Schultz, Martin Marincin and Yakupov might be top-of-the-roster pieces for an Oilers team that's ready to win in a few years time. None of those players are there yet though, and following this season, they'll be restricted free agents. 

Next summer, the club will face a difficult decision on what to pay all three players, depending on how well they perform this season. Will any of Yakupov, Schultz, or Marincin take a major step forward and earn themselves the type of long-term deal the organization handed out to their marketable "next" core of Nugent-Hopkins, Hall and Eberle?

There's also pending unrestricted free agent Jeff Petry, a solid puck-moving defender who excels at tilting the ice, but is occasionally a bit too easy to skate through (right Erik Johnson?). With the premium being paid on the open market for competent free agent defensemen, Petry could be in-line to cash in if he has even a halfway decent season. 

Will the Oilers let him get to that point? Because it's not like they have a wealth of young players who can credibly take his place on the top-pair.