I don't know about you guys, but I'm not going to be able to sleep until I can take my mind off this brutal loss, so who wants to start talking about the offseason? Great season for the most part, and I think it's fair to say the team should have high hopes for next year. Topics:

Compliance buyout: Obviously we have to use our last compliance buyout (meaning the buyout doesn't count against the cap) because of cap issues, and there are only two candidates: Brad Richards and Rick Nash. It seems pretty clear that Richards is the obvious choice given his declining play, age, contract, and probability of retiring before he finishes his contract, in which case the Rangers will be penalized. Does anyone think Nash should be the one?

Top-line center? Assuming we buyout Richards, we'll need a center to play that 1A 1B role. Who do we go after? Statsny perhaps?

Forward re-signings: The expiring contracts on the forwards side are: Kreider, Zuc, Brassard, Boyle, Pouliot, D. Moore, and Carcillo. Obviously re-signing Zuc and Kreider are a must, and you have to figure we'll want to keep Brassard because of his youth, chemistry with Zuc, and raw talent. I'd love to keep Boyle, so hopefully his asking price will be reasonable. D. Moore was great as well and I'd love to see him return. Pouliot had good chemistry with Brass/Zuc, but he's prone to stupid penalties and turnovers. It'll be interesting. Carbomb is expendable and I doubt he'd want to stay as a 13th forward. What do you guys think, and how much should these guys get?

Re-signing defensemen: Expiring contracts: Stralman, J. Moore, Justin Falk (the bad one), and Diaz. I really hope we can keep Stralman, but as NBC kept alluding to, he's gonna cost a lot after his breakout year. Hopefully we can keep J. Moore for a low price. If we lock those two up, we have a solid D. Optimus Klein was solid. Girardi was super disappointing, especially in the Finals, but he's locked up so let's hope he was just injured.

Drafting: Do we have any picks left?

Things to work on: What does the team need to improve on? What areas should some of the players focus on? I hope some work on getting a little stronger since, as we saw, we don't match up well against a big, strong forechecking team. Hopefully they can work on the power play as the season approaches as well, but with Richards gone and hopefully Girardi being taken off the point it should look much better.

Hopes: We should have high hopes for next year. They made it to the Finals with their two "stars" grossly underperforming. If we can teach Rick Nash to play playoff hockey or get it into his head that he's Rick Nash, we should have a more successful season. St. Louis will also have time to get to know his teammates better.

What do you guys think about the upcoming offseason? Any big moves?