Real Salt Lake snook into the playoffs last season. Although they played some lovely football under Mike Petke with a slew of attacking weapons, it was only a late collapse by LA Galaxy that allowed them to squeeze into the sixth position in the Western Conference.
They actually had a negative goal difference (-3) — goal difference, incidentally, is often a better predictor of how good a team actually is, rather than their points — and conceded 58 goals across the season, more than any playoff team in MLS.
Noise may have been made by Real Salt Lake in the latter stages of the season and in the playoffs, but a burgeoning roster still needed to be fine-tuned this offseason.