The No. 4 pick in the 2005 NHL Draft, Benoit Pouliot will be playing for his sixth team in six seasons as a member of the Edmonton Oilers.

Despite Pouliot's travels, the Oilers saw enough in the right wing to offer a five-year, $20-million contract this offseason, hoping he can fill a void in their lineup.

Pouliot, 27, comes off a strong run in the Stanley Cup Playoffs with the New York Rangers, making him an attractive free agent candidate for the Oilers, who were looking to add size up front.

"It's the work ethic really for me," Oilers general manager Craig MacTavish said. "He's an excellent skater who closes gaps and is able to get quickly to forechecks, and it's something that was sorely lacking in our game throughout our lineup. We think that Benoit is going to provide that, and he's got some ability to finish as well."

The Edmonton Oilers were expected to take a step forward in their rebuild last season, but instead slipped back and finished near the bottom of the NHL standings again.

Since taking over the team toward the end of the 2012-13 season, general manager Craig MacTavish has revamped his roster while being careful not to disrupt the Oilers' young, talented core.

MacTavish has been working to bridge the gap between the present and the future, trying to get Edmonton back into contention for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Oilers have not been there since getting to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final in 2006.

Yet for all the work MacTavish has put in, there seem to be more questions than answers heading into the 2014-2015 season.

Here are five questions facing the Oilers this season:

Craig MacTavish continued to remodel the Edmonton Oilers' roster this offseason in an attempt to get the team back into contention for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Since taking over from Steve Tambellini in April 2013, MacTavish has been among the most active general managers in the NHL.

His mandate is to expedite the Oilers' rebuilding process without sacrificing their young core.

In an effort to improve a team that finished at the bottom of the Western Conference standings last season, MacTavish brought in wings Benoit Pouliot and Teddy Purcell, while adding to his blue line with defensemen Keith Aulie, Mark Fayne and Nikita Nikitin.

"For us, size was an issue," MacTavish said. "We knew we needed to get bigger and both of these guys are bigger. Teddy Purcell has quite a bit of talent; I think there is still some untapped upside in him that we're hoping to discover.

Picking first at the NHL Draft three straight seasons (2010-12) allowed the Edmonton Oilers to select three NHL-ready prospects in Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Nail Yakupov.

Otherwise, the Oilers have done their best to be patient with their young players.

That could change, however, as Leon Draisaitl, the third pick of the 2014 draft, will have every chance to become the team's fourth top-10 pick in the past five years to play in the NHL as an 18-year-old.

Here's a look at the Oilers' top 10 prospects, according to NHL.com:

Is this the year?

It was a tagline from a recent NHL marketing promotion, but it's also been the foremost question on the minds of Edmonton Oilers fans for several offseasons. Is this the year Edmonton, led by its young core, finally returns to prominence?

The rebuilding process has taken longer in Oil Country than it did in Pittsburgh or Chicago or Washington, but the talent is in place. The Oilers buttressed the roster with a couple of interesting free-agent signings, namely forward Benoit Pouliot and defenseman Mark Fayne.

If a couple of young defensemen improve and the goaltending is better, the Oilers could shoot up from the bottom of the Western Conference into Stanley Cup Playoff contention. Reaching the top eight and returning to the postseason would take significant improvements.

Here's a look at the projected 2014-15 lineup for the Oilers:

If there's one area on the ice where the Boston Bruins seemingly have cornered the market, it's goaltending.

It wasn't done by accident, either, as the organization had to move quickly when Tim Thomas decided to leave Boston after the 2011-12 season. By that time, though, the Bruins had Tuukka Rask in the fold and another prospect on the horizon in 2012 free-agent signee Niklas Svedberg.

Rask won the Vezina Trophy as the NHL's top goaltender in 2013-14 and Svedberg is projected to become his full-time backup in 2014-15 following the departure in free agency of Chad Johnson.

By the end of the 2013-14 regular season, the Boston Bruins had emerged as the clear favorite in the Eastern Conference, and a path to making their third Stanley Cup Final in four years seemed clear.

It did not turn out that way because a long-time nemesis, the Montreal Canadiens, upset the Bruins in dramatic fashion in the second round. Boston did not have a lot of salary-cap flexibility this summer, and it showed.

Jarome Iginla left for the Colorado Avalanche, and his offense will be missed. Shawn Thornton left for the Florida Panthers, but breaking up the popular "Merlot Line" will be a positive for the Bruins moving forward.

Otherwise, it is more of the same for the Bruins. Time is catching up to a few guys, and Boston needs young players to emerge in larger roles this season. The Bruins are probably still the best team in the East, but the gap is not likely to be as wide.

Here's a look at the projected 2014-15 lineup for the Bruins:

The Boston Bruins failed to defend their Eastern Conference title last season, when they lost a seven-game series in the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Their early ouster was doubly painful because they had won the Presidents' Trophy to earn home-ice advantage for the entire postseason, and because the team that prevailed in that seventh game was the archrival Montreal Canadiens.

In some outposts of the NHL, a loss like the one that ended the Bruins' season well short of their ultimate goal would be cause for reconstructing a roster. However, that's not how Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli operates.

Boston Bruins forward Loui Eriksson, who was traded from the Dallas Stars on July 4, 2013, had a lot to adjust to last season.

After seven seasons in Dallas, he had to move to a new city and learn a new system.

Then the left-shooting wing had to live up to expectations. He was the centerpiece of Boston's package that was acquired in exchange for rising star center Tyler Seguin, who wound up fourth in the NHL scoring race with 84 points.

Eriksson, two seasons removed from a 71-point season with the Stars, came up well short in his bid to make people forget about Seguin.

They don't give players a summer day with the Presidents' Trophy.

There are no parades associated with the award given to the team with the best regular-season record in the NHL.

No, those privileges only come with the Stanley Cup, a fact the Boston Bruins know all too well after they followed a 117-point regular season with a seven-game loss in the Eastern Conference Second Round to the Montreal Canadiens.

Boston is going to have to find a way to improve in 2014-15. However, even after losing top goal-scorer Jarome Iginla to the Colorado Avalanche as an unrestricted free agent, the Bruins didn't have enough salary-cap space to make changes to their roster.