For all the same reasons repeating as Stanley Cup champion is such a challenge, climbing that mountain again as the runner-up is nearly as hard. Nobody was going to sleep on the San Jose Sharks this season. And they certainly didn’t get the health they received last spring, with Joe Thornton and Logan Couture playing through serious injuries in the playoffs.

In the end, they couldn’t find a way to solve Cam Talbot and the Edmonton Oilers, even while doing an effective job containing the Hart Trophy favorite Connor McDavid.

It sets up an interesting offseason for GM Doug Wilson, who has tough decisions to make for some players who have been there a long time. Here’s where he should focus:

1. Sign Joe Thornton to a short-term contract

Thornton has always taken less than market value to stay in San Jose, but you can’t help but wonder if he may push back a little harder in light of the huge deal Brent Burns received. Thornton is a pending unrestricted free agent, and there’s no rush to sign him considering the expectation is that both sides get a deal done. If it happens after the expansion draft, that’s one less player the Sharks have to protect.

Term is the question. A three-year deal gets him to 40, but at this point, that may be too much for both sides. Thornton, as one coach said, plays a half-court game in a time where speed up and down the ice is the preference. He’s still a great player and the Sharks have to get it done, but he’s 37, his point production is in decline and it probably won’t reverse course.

He’s the most popular guy in that locker room and a future Hall of Famer; there’s a deal to be struck that works out for everyone.

2. Let Patrick Marleau walk (unless he’s cutting a deal)

There was a moment at the end of the Sharks' elimination game where the camera cut to Marleau sitting on the bench at the Shark Tank, weary and emotional. You couldn’t help but wonder if that was the final moment we’d see Marleau, an unrestricted free agent, in a Sharks uniform. At 37 years old, he scored 27 goals, can still skate and had three goals in six playoff games. He might not have won a Stanley Cup in San Jose, but he’s buried concerns earlier in his career that dogged him about his playoff production.

His salary was close to $7 million this past season, so unless he’s willing to take a steep discount at this point in his career, it’s best to part ways and create an opportunity for the younger forwards in the system.

3. Explore a way out of the Mikkel Boedker contract

OK, I was wrong. I liked this signing in the summer. I thought it provided speed the Sharks needed to match the faster teams in the NHL. Boedker, as free agents go, wasn’t particularly old when he signed, at age 26. But he certainly wasn’t worth the $4 million per season he’s going to earn through 2019-20.

If there’s a way to get out of this contract -- either through the expansion draft, a trade in which money is retained or some other creative solution -- the combination of losing this contract and Marleau’s would give Wilson some nice flexibility this summer.

There are going to be some major players traded this offseason as talent is distributed around the league before the expansion draft, and cap space will be at a premium. If there are deals to be made and he has the cap space, Wilson is usually a guy right in the middle of the action.