This winter saw something of an exodus from Major League Soccer. The Los Angeles Galaxy’s David Beckham left for Paris Saint-Germain. Sporting Kansas City’s Roger Espinoza and Kei Kamara signed with English Premier League clubs Wigan Athletic and Norwich City. Brek Shea left FC Dallas for Stoke City. DC United’s Andy Najar, meanwhile, became the first home-grown MLS player to be sold overseas upon his transfer to Belgian powerhouse Anderlecht. To the league’s credit, all five have slotted seamlessly into their new sides. But don’t be fooled into thinking that these departures leave the talent pool depleted. Many worthwhile players remain. Join us for a compilation of the ten biggest MLS stars, in no particular order.

A serial goalscorer, Wondo, as he almost universally goes by, netted 61 times over the last three MLS seasons, leading or sharing the lead in scoring league-wide each year. His production is unprecedented, courtesy of an uncanny knack for putting himself in the right place at the right time. Now finally a Designated Player with a fat new contract after his 2012 MVP season, Wondolowski, 30, will be relied upon to keep scoring.

Donovan, the US national team’s all-time leading scorer, won’t re-join the Galaxy until late March after taking a sabbatical following the Dec. 1 MLS Cup final. But when he returns and regains his form, the graceful 30-year-old will probably continue to carve up opposing defenses. So long as he staves off further motivational issues, Donovan remains the best American ever.

The magnificently-coifed University of Maryland product has gradually emerged as one of MLS’s finest playmakers, leading the league with 15 assists in 2012. He orchestrates Sporting KC’s fluid offense from just behind the front line and has emerged as a viable national team option on the right wing. At 26, Zusi is entering his prime and could become one of the faces of the league.

With Beckham gone, Henry is MLS’s most reputable player. The striker has lost the speed that made him such a terror in the Premier League, when he scored 174 goals in just eight seasons for Arsenal in the 2000s. But however cranky and tempestuous he has grown, the 35-year-old Frenchman’s genius remains, as evidenced by the 29 goals he scored over the last two seasons on pure savvy.

Sometimes described as the left-footed David Beckham, this soft-spoken Missourian hunter turned left-winger is the league’s foremost technician, dispatching laser-guided set pieces and crosses to onrushing strikers. Davis, 31, was instrumental in getting the Dynamo to MLS Cup four times in seven years and has recently resurfaced with the US national team.

If it weren’t for Gonzo, the Galaxy probably wouldn’t have repeated as MLS champions last season. While he was out with a torn knee ligament during the first half of the season, the Galaxy floundered. When Gonzalez, 24, recovered, reclaimed his place in the center of the back line and finally settled the defense, the club surged to the title. This was no coincidence.

After winning the 2011 MVP award in spite of splitting the season between three teams, De-Ro’s veteran leadership and playmaking – not to mention his seven goals and 12 assists – were bedrock to United’s resurrection from missing four consecutive missed playoffs to last season’s push into the Eastern Conference Finals. At 34, he isn’t slowing down any.

The Galaxy are the 32-year-old journeyman Ireland striker’s 10th club. But he’s found a good home in SoCal. The clever Keane was a key cog in the Galaxy’s championship machinery and with Beckham gone and Landon Donovan on a brief hiatus from the sport will act as the focal point of the offense this season. Just imagine what that will do for his scoring output, which already stood at 16 last year.

The older brother of Real Madrid’s much-laurelled striker Gonzalo Higuain, Federico proved one of the best mid-season pickups in 2012, scoring five goals and collecting seven assists in just 13 games. Alongside another shrewd pickup in Costa Rican Jairo Arrieta, the 28-year-old Argentinean is due to inflict serious damage over an entire season.

In parts of two seasons, the big Dutch striker scored an incredibly efficient 17 goals in 26 games for a terrible team – which he famously called “the worst team in the world” last season – that barely produced chances for him to exploit. However, at 34, he’s proved injury-prone of late and will miss the first half of the season. But when he’s healthy, there are few better.