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OAKVILLE, Ont. — Business is about to pick up on the World Curling Tour.

The world’s best men’s teams return to the Greater Toronto Area this weekend for the Stu Sells Oakville Tankard with several of them set to make their season debut. The top women’s teams are split up this weekend with some here at the Oakville Curling Club while others are out west for the HDF Insurance Shoot-Out in Edmonton.

Both events offer a ton of points during a crucial season in the Olympic quadrennial cycle with several Canadian teams looking to lock down the remaining guaranteed spots for next year’s Olympic Trials. Sure there’s always the long road via the pre-trials, however, teams would rather earn a direct entry than play an extra event to try and sneak in via the back door.

In other words, it’s go time.

Here are storylines to watch this weekend:

1. Top men’s teams take flight

Seven of the top 10 men’s teams ranked on the World Curling Tour’s Order of Merit are in Oakville. Leading the charge is defending champion Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., making his season debut. Gushue, ranked No. 2 in the world, had a stellar tour season last year winning eight events — including three Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling titles — that all started right at the Stu Sells. The team also cashed in big by claiming the Rogers Grand Slam Cup and finished the season with a total of $194,051 in winnings.

UPDATE: Brad Gushue will miss the Stu Sells Oakville Tankard due to a hip/groin issue. Team Gushue third Mark Nichols has moved up to skip with spare Adam Spencer filling in at vice.

Winnipeg’s Reid Carruthers (No. 4) and Saskatoon’s Steve Laycock (No. 7) also get their curling seasons underway. Carruthers aims to pick up where he left off as the winner of last season’s final event, the Humpty’s Champions Cup, which was also his first Pinty’s GSOC title as a skip.

Toronto’s John Epping (No. 5) rounds out the Canadian contingent from the top 10 and looks to bounce back after a disappointing Oakville OCT Fall Classic last week. While Epping finished round-robin play with a 3-1 record, his team fell into a tiebreaker scenario and was eliminated based on draw-to-the-button scores.

Olympic medallists David Murdoch of Scotland (No. 8), Sweden’s Niklas Edin (No. 9) and American John Shuster (No. 10) will also be in action.

2. Familiar faces, new places

The Stu Sells Oakville Tankard sees the return of John Morris to Jim Cotter’s team, now once again known as Team Morris. The 2010 Olympic gold medallist Morris played with the B.C. rink during the 2013-14 season and finished runner-up at the Canadian Olympic Trials and Tim Hortons Brier. That’s quite an impressive run during their lone season together and it’ll be intriguing to see if they can re-spark that magic. Morris will throw third stones while skipping the team.

Meanwhile, Morris’s former skip Pat Simmons made the biggest move of the off-season joining Brendan Bottcher’s team to play third. The 41-year-old Simmons brings tons of experience — winning two Brier titles and two Grand Slam championships — and his veteran presence will surely help the 2012 world junior champ Bottcher.

Four-time world champ Glenn Howard has a new second in David Mathers, who spent last season in P.E.I. on Adam Casey’s squad. Jason Gunnlaugson plays his third event already with Canadian junior champ Matt Dunstone’s former crew. The Winnipeg team won the two-day Performance Spider Midweek Special in Kitchener-Waterloo earlier this week following a semifinal finish at the Oakville OCT Fall Classic.

All four of these teams are ranked in the teens on the OOM and could shuffle around by the end of the weekend, making things interesting heading into the cut-off date for the first Pinty’s GSOC event, the Masters.

3. Scottish invasion

The men’s side of the Stu Sells Oakville Tankard features four teams from the birthplace of the game: Murdoch, Tom Brewster, Kyle Smith, plus reigning world junior champ Bruce Mouat in the Tier 2 portion.

Murdoch, Brewster and Smith all started the season two weeks ago in Switzerland at the Baden Masters and all three fell in the quarterfinals. Smith, the 2013 world junior champ, got a leg-up on his countrymen heading across the pond immediately to play in last week’s Oakville OCT Fall Classic. Team Smith ran the table posting a 7-0 record en route to the title and now have a chance to make it two in a row at the Oakville Curling Club.

4. Trios highlight women’s side

Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg also looks for an “Oakville double” after winning the women’s OCT Fall Classic. They’ll also face tougher competition this time around with compatriot Margaretha Sigfridsson competing and a potential head-to-head match in the second round of the A-bracket in the triple knockout.

Also keep an eye out on Isabella Wrana of Sweden after her runner-up finish in the Oakville OCT Fall Classic.

Swiss teams Binia Feltscher, Alina Paetz and Silvana Tirinzoni will also be in action. Feltscher has won two of the past three world championships with Paetz’s 2015 title sandwiched in-between.

Sticking with the rule of threes, the trio of American teams skipped by Cory Christensen, Nina Roth and Jamie Sinclair face off again as their points race continues. Sinclair gained the advantage last week with a semifinal finish at the Oakville OCT Fall Classic while both Christensen and Roth struggled and missed the playoffs.

5. HDF Insurance Shoot-Out preview

Val Sweeting looks to defend the title on home ice taking on Eve Muirhead, Stefanie Lawton, Kelsey Rocque, Scotties champion Chelsea Carey, world silver medallist Satsuki Fujisawa, and more at the Saville Centre.

The win last year earned Sweeting a spot in the season-ending Humpty’s Champions Cup, so while the calendar says September, teams may also have an April date on their mind.