Today is exit day for the Senators following the final buzzer of their season on Saturday afternoon. It is a day for interviews with the coaches and management, cleaning up, signing memorabilia on their way out the door.

Some will go on to represent their country at the World Championships (Mark Stone, for one, is confirmed), others will take a break and get some much needed rest and relaxation.

Despite threats of change made by Eugene Melnyk a couple of weeks back, realistically most of the players will be back next year.

But some wont. So, who is cleaning out their stall for the final time as a Senator?

First and foremost, Patrick Wiercioch. The pending RFA, accoring to Bruce Garrioch, might not even get a qualifying offer which would make him a UFA. Wiercioch showed signs of live down the stretch last season and into the World Championships, but took big steps backward instead of forward and as a result is likely to get left behind. There probably could have been a taker or two last summer but I don't think you could get a back of pucks for his rights right now. Someone will take a chance and sign him, but it won't be Ottawa.

Up next, Alex Chiasson, another pending RFA who might be in the same boat as Wiercioch. Maligned by fans, he doesn't command a huge salary but expectations from being a big piece of the Jason Spezza trade as well as long droughts with little offense has made him a target. He went to arbitration last season and didn't like the outcome (imagine he was getting paid the $2.475M he was asking for) and played for $1.2M this year. If he is looking for a raise I wouldn't expect one.

Chris Phillips, who missed the entire season with a back injury (and quite possibly a handshake agreement to sit out while being paid the last year of his contract), will not likely see the ice again. In the coming days I will have more on Phillips and his contribution, but suffice to say the Senators will be moving past him at this point.

Scott Gomez, we hardly knew ya. Signed as a late-season stop-gap measure when the club shut down Kyle Turris, Gomez didn't do much and certainly not enough to warrant a continuation of the audition.

So those are the obvious ones...what about any potential surprises?

Mike Hoffman is going to get a big raise. Seasons of 27 and 29 goals and a 59 point season is certainly worthy of more than doubling, if not tripling the $2M he was awarded by an arbitrator this season. He will be worth that, but will the Senators pay it or will they dangle him and more to bring in another top end forward. I look at is as a lateral move, because if you are bringing in a top 6 at the expense of a top 6 already here, are you really improving that much. I don't see them getting an established superstar either through trade or free agency, and there isn't going to be a substantial improvement over a top 50 NHL scorer, which Hoffman was, and only 28 had more goals.

Clarke MacArthur missed all but 4 games in suffering his 3rd concussion in 9 months, causing him to miss a vast majority of the season. If there is going to be a change in the Senators top 6, it might be hedging the bets on MacArthur being able to play, and play in a top 6 role. It wouldn't be the worst thing to happen to move him down the lineup and be a guy that can step in if a shakeup is needed or someone is slumping. The most important thing though, will be getting a clean bill of health and being able to continue his career. I think the only way he doesn't return is because of health, but that has to be a concern given his inability to come back in almost 6 months.

There may be others, but the focus of the Senators will be to get deeper so that they don't suffer the same fate next season as they did this where the team was probably good enough to be a playoff team when healthy, but couldn't withstand the injury bug. If that means dropping a guy off your bottom end in order to slot other players better, so be it.

But despite the owners mumblings, I don't think there will be a wholesale tear-down and rebuild this summer.

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