4 - Edmonton Oilers

New coach. New phenom. Is it the dawning of a new era for the Edmonton Oilers? General manager Steve Tambellini certainly hopes so after selecting Russian wing Nail Yakupov with the No. 1 pick in the 2012 NHL Draft on June 22 and hiring Ralph Krueger to be the 11th coach in franchise history five days later. Along with the signing of defense prospect Justin Schultz as a free agent on July 1, those were the major offseason moves by the Oilers, who chose to stay the course with their rebuild rather than make a big trade or chase an established player on the open market. Instead, Edmonton will look to a nucleus that includes No. 1 picks Taylor Hall and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, up-and-comers Jordan Eberle and Devan Dubnyk, and veterans including Ryan Smyth to snap a skid of three straight last-place finishes in the Northwest Division and six consecutive seasons missing the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Krueger, who worked wonders with the Swiss national team before joining the Edmonton staff two years ago as an associate coach under Tom Renney, will take his crack at leading the franchise back to prominence. "(His) teaching ability, obviously his technical skill is elite," Tambellini said in describing Krueger's attributes the day he was hired. "The leadership of this group is so important right now. Our young people need the right message, one that's instructive, inspiring, motivating, and I can't think of a better person to do that than Ralph Krueger." The Oilers have holdovers Smyth, captain Shawn Horcoff and Ales Hemsky from the 2006 team that went to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. But a significant portion of the roster has never tasted postseason action. Krueger has been tasked with taking the young talent the front office has assembled and molding a new generation of champions. "A winning culture grows out of a culture of excellence," Krueger said. "We're going to be extremely detail-focused. From the summer training that's going on right now, we'll communicate with the players as much as possible to support them. We want to be known as a hard-working team on and off the ice, a very disciplined team. The winning will come as a byproduct of that. "Our natural ability will lead us to winning. The winning is a byproduct, not a focus. The focus will be excellence; it will be our execution, our practices. You won't come to a practice where you see us, in any way shape or form, compromising our quality. Every practice, on or off the ice, will be at the highest possible level and winning will naturally be a byproduct of the time we put it in." Edmonton took a step in the right direction last season despite finishing 21 points out of a Western Conference playoff berth. After consecutive seasons with an NHL-low 62 points, the Oilers improved their record to 32-40-10 for 72 points, and ended up winning the draft lottery, moving ahead of the Columbus Blue Jackets (65 points). Though there was speculation the Oilers might pick a defenseman this time around, they went for the consensus best player on the board and drafted Yakupov, who like Hall and Nugent-Hopkins before him is expected to jump straight to the NHL. That decision appeared even more astute when the Oilers ended up winning the sweepstakes for Schultz, who was drafted in 2008 by the Anaheim Ducks but never signed, then became a free agent after leaving the University of Wisconsin. Edmonton also signed depth forward Dane Byers, who has 14 career NHL games played with the Blue Jackets and New York Rangers. The Oilers concentrated on keeping their own free agents. Smyth, still a scoring threat at age 36, received a two-year contract. Goalie Dubnyk and defenseman Jeff Petry, restricted free agents, also got new two-year deals, and RFA d-man Theo Peckham was reupped for one year. The team avoided arbitration with forward Sam Gagner, who lit up the Chicago Blackhawks for a four-goal, eight-point night on Feb. 2, by agreeing on a one-year contract. Dubnyk, 26, set career bests in appearances (47), wins (20) and goals-against average (2.67) last season, and again forms the goaltending tandem with veteran Nikolai Khabibulin. "There's a ton of excitement around this team and there's good reason for it," Dubnyk said in the Edmonton Sun. Along with that excitement comes the knowledge the Oilers will be expected to start living up to their great promise and produce results on the ice. The Vancouver Canucks remain the favorites in the Northwest, but the division becomes more wide open after that. It will be up to Krueger's charges to prove they can play like a contender on a night-in, night-out basis. "There has to be some extra pressure on everyone," Gagner told the team's website. "We haven't done as well as we would have liked in the past couple years, so we have to add that internal pressure where we're trying to get better and push each other to new heights. We need to be pushing for a playoff spot and getting back to that level that we should be at. "That has to be our goal. We can't be in a situation where if things go wrong this year we're saying, 'There's always next year.' It's happened too much and it has to be a case where we put pressure on ourselves every day to avoid it."

On June 19, 2006, the Edmonton Oilers attempted to complete their rally from a 3-1 deficit in the Stanley Cup Final, coming up short in a 3-1 Game 7 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes. That remains the most recent playoff game for a storied franchise that once boasted the likes of Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Paul Coffey and Grant Fuhr, so the biggest question on the minds of many Oilers fans heading into the 2012-13 season revolves around whether the club is finally set to end that drought. The answer: probably not yet. However, with a roster that figures to include the three most-recent No. 1 NHL Draft picks (Nail Yakupov is expected to join predecessors Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Taylor Hall), in addition to a plethora of other young, skilled talent not only up front but along the blue line and in goal, the Oilers are in position to at least challenge for a top-eight seed in the Western Conference and break a streak of three straight last-place finishes in the Northwest Division.

Before joining the Oilers' staff in 2010 under Tom Renney as an associate, Ralph Krueger, who turns 53 on Aug. 31, built his reputation behind the bench internationally. Following a successful playing career in Germany, he turned around the fortunes of the Swiss national team and guided them all the way to the bronze-medal game at the 1998 World Championship. His squads also were forces to be reckoned with at Olympics in Turin and Vancouver. Krueger has been able to spend the past two seasons getting acclimated to NHL coaching under Renney, even filling in for him briefly on a pair of occasions when a concussion and a death in the family kept Renney away. Now it'll be Krueger's job to manage the ice time his young players and veterans get, as well as figure out the situation in goal. He is well-respected in hockey circles, though, and shouldn't have trouble bringing the room in Edmonton together. "I think Ralph is a very good coach," current St. Louis Blues coach Ken Hitchcock told NHL.com in 2010. "You can see it the way he gets his teams prepared to play and the way they play with patience and discipline. That doesn't happen by accident."

Edmonton was fortunate enough to add prospects on both offense and defense who could make an immediate impact. Although the Oilers finished nine points ahead of the Columbus Blue Jackets, they won the draft lottery, allowing them to take Nail Yakupov at No. 1, and they were able to sign Justin Schultz as a free agent when the Anaheim Ducks couldn't come to terms with their 2008 second-round choice. Schultz turned 22 this summer and has three seasons of experience at the University of Wisconsin under his belt. There seems to be little doubt he's NHL-ready, and the big question as far as his development goes may be how he handles all the hype surrounding him. Schultz received some negative attention after rejecting the Ducks' overtures to sign with them and becoming a free agent before playing his first NHL game. Yakupov is 18 and comes off a season in the Ontario Hockey League in which he was limited to 42 games because of various injuries, but his skill level is unquestioned, he's amassed 80 goals and 170 points the past two seasons for the Sarnia Sting, and the Oilers showed in the past with Nugent-Hopkins and Hall they're not shy about throwing a dynamite rookie right into the fire.

Renney split the starts just about evenly last season, with Devan Dubnyk making 42 and veteran Nikolai Khabibulin 40. That number also represents the age Khabibulin will turn in January, and he's in the final season of a four-year contract, so it's important for 26-year-old Dubnyk to show he can be the man in net as the Oilers build themselves into a playoff contender. A first-round pick by Edmonton in 2004, Dubnyk enters his fourth NHL season with stats that have steadily improved. His appearances have increased each year while his goals-against average has gone down. His save percentages of .916 and .914 the past two seasons are more than respectable on teams that have struggled defensively. Dubnyk got a new two-year contract over the summer and is ready for the added responsibility that comes with it. "I'm going to try to continue to earn my starts. That helps ease some of the pressure if you challenge yourself. Then you're never worried about them being handed to you, or taken away," Dubnyk said in the National Post.

Staying healthy would be a good start. Taylor Hall has had each of his first two NHL seasons end early because of injury, missing a total of 38 games. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins missed 20 games as a rookie, costing him additional points (16 of them, based off his projected output for an 82-game season) and probably the Calder Trophy, which went to Gabriel Landeskog of the Colorado Avalanche. Hall, who had shoulder surgery in March, improved his numbers as a sophomore despite playing in four fewer games. His goals jumped from 22 to 27, he scored one in four consecutive games prior to getting injured on his first shift March 16 against the Calgary Flames, and his points increased from 42 to 53. He's on the verge of stardom, and if he can stay in the lineup for a full 82 games it would help the Oilers' playoff chances immensely. Nugent-Hopkins scored 18 goals and tied Landeskog for the rookie scoring lead with 52 points. There was concern about his 6-foot-1, 175-pound frame entering the season, and shoulder injuries derailed him down the stretch after a blazing start. But he developed solid chemistry with Hall and Jordan Eberle on a top line that figures to stay intact.

In projecting various line combinations for the upcoming season, the Edmonton Journal's Oilers blog projected Magnus Paajarvi playing left wing on the second line or struggling to crack the lineup. That could depend in large part on whether Yakupov slots in at left wing or right wing and how the depth chart is subsequently affected. Paajarvi, the 10th pick in the 2009 NHL Draft, managed two goals and eight points in 41 games last season after a promising 15-goal, 34-point rookie campaign. He ended up back in the American Hockey League, where he posted 25 points in 34 games for Oklahoma City. At 21 years old, he figures to get another shot at fulfilling his potential at some point.

For all the talk about offense and the plethora of young talent Edmonton possesses up front, unless they're going to score at a rate similar to the Gretzky-era clubs, the Oilers will have to cut down on their goals-against if they want to be in contention past the All-Star break. They gave up 239 goals last season, which ranked eighth from the bottom of the League. Nick Schultz, acquired from the Minnesota Wild prior to last season's trade deadline, gives them a steady veteran presence to go along with Andy Sutton, Ladislav Smid and oft-injured Ryan Whitney. Jeff Petry and Corey Potter had strong first full seasons in the NHL, and Theo Peckham provides a physical presence. Add Justin Schultz to the mix, and although it's not as flashy a group as the forwards, there's enough present to improve upon the 2011-12 numbers.

Sure, the Edmonton Oilers were lodged near the bottom of the NHL standings again last season, but something changed in Central Alberta. The Oilers, led by a trio of talented phenoms, were fun to watch again, and a legitimate sense of hope evolved. Watching a team lose enough to secure players like Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Nail Yakupov is not a lot of fun, but the end result, a team that can compete for the Stanley Cup for multiple seasons, might just be near for Oilers fans. Hall, Nugent-Hopkins and Jordan Eberle were electric together when healthy. Maybe just as important were the steps forward for defenseman Jeff Petry and goalie Devan Dubnyk as the Oilers try to put together a well-rounded roster.

Yakupov is the next great forward prospect to join the club, although winning the Justin Schultz sweepstakes may prove just as significant as winning the draft lottery to select Yakupov. They were the only major additions this offseason for the Oilers, but name another franchise outside of Minnesota that added two (potential) franchise players? Obviously, Yakupov and Schultz still need to prove they can be those types of players, but there is more reason for excitement in Edmonton as the Oilers could be back among the NHL's elite teams in the next year or two.

Forwards

Taylor Hall - Ryan Nugent-Hopkins - Jordan Eberle

Ryan Smyth - Sam Gagner - Nail Yakupov

Ryan Jones - Shawn Horcoff - Ales Hemsky

Teemu Hartikainen - Eric Belanger - Ben Eager

Lennart Petrell

Defensemen

Ladislav Smid - Jeff Petry

Nick Schultz - Justin Schultz

Ryan Whitney - Corey Potter

Andy Sutton

Goaltenders

Devan Dubnyk

Nikolai Khabibulin

NOTES: The big name missing among the forwards is Magnus Paajarvi. If he proves last year was a fluke, there's a good chance he earns a spot on the team and likely on the second or third line. That would cause a ripple effect in what is already a crowded situation. If Paajarvi doesn't make the team, there is still plenty of potential fluidity behind the top line. Yakupov might be the only guy among the six forwards on the second/third lines who is definitely going to get top-six treatment. Hemsky, Smyth and Jones could all bounce back and forth or be shifted around. Smyth, Horcoff and Hemsky would certainly be an expensive third line. Whitney could factor into the top four on defense if he can find his form from a few years ago, but otherwise it looks set (and potentially pretty strong pending the younger Schultz's impact). Potter, Sutton and Theo Peckham will battle for the final spot in the lineup, and all eight guys could be on the roster pending how many forwards are kept. Expect to see Dubnyk play a little more this season if he stays healthy, and expect his numbers to look a little better as the defense corps improves in front of him.