The Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps will take major steps toward building their MLS expansion teams on Nov. 24, when both teams take part in the MLS Expansion Draft. Details for the expansion draft were revealed on Friday.
Each team will select ten players from the pool of players not protected by the 16 current MLS teams. Each MLS team will have the chance to protect 11 players, while all Generation adidas and Homegrown players are excluded from the expansion draft. No team can lose more than two players in the Expansion draft and after a team has lost a player, it is allowed to add a player to its protected list.
The expansion draft figures to sting some top teams that boast good depth, like Real Salt Lake and the Seattle Sounders, while teams with a high percentage of young talent on their roster, like the Philadelphia Union and D.C. United, will be in a good position to protect all their key players.
Which players are you hoping your team can hold on to? Think it's inevitable that some top teams will lose two good players? Who are you worried about your team letting go?
Share your thoughts below.
I don’t see the Sounders leaving Parke unprotected. And I doubt they’d protect both Fucito and Nyassi. I agree with others that Jaqua probably goes to Portland. I think Ianni then becomes the 12th protected player. I see Vancouver taking either of Fucito or Nyassi (whichever isn’t protected) or Sturgis, depending on where they have a hole in their lineup.
The Sounders are a team made up largely of USL (ex-Sounders + Alonso) players and expansion draftees with a few careful foreign signings. The expansion draft does hurt the good teams–the Sounders will almost certainly lose two. Ironically these are players that either came from a lower league or weren’t in the top 11 of their previous team.
No, I believe he graduated by virtue of minutes played.
Given Keller’s form the second-half of the season I would say his return is a given. Adrian and Sigi have both said that as long as he plays well it’s pretty much up to him if he wants to come back. For his part, Kasey has always said that if he plays up to his standard this year he wants to return for one year of the Portland and Vancouver rivalries.
Good call. Completely forgot Generation Adidas still applied. Add Parke or Ianni the protected list.
Fucito is the most likely to be taken. He’s hard working, intelligent, young, and scores goals. Making 40k a year doesn’t hurt the salary cap either.
Second most likely is Brad Evans. 25 years old with a lot of experience, and the Sounders won’t protect him.
Pretty sure he Gen Adidas for 3 years, so we don’t have to protect him.
DPs are not protected to my understanding. I expect the sounders to lose Jaqua to Portland and probably Fucito or Evans to Vancouver. I do not see how we can protect Evans with the injury issues he has had
Isn’t Zakuani protected under Gen Adidas? Or does that have an expiry date?
*DPs are not protected
Wrong. DPs protected unless they have a no trade clause or something similar.
too much depth at midfield to lose any defenders, in my opinion. but I guess its an ever-changing situation.
plus, is Keller even a sure thing for next year?
There are only two players not with the club anymore: Shavar Thomas and David Myrie
The expansion draft is really stupid.
they are protected, not to mention try building a team while paying either Henry or Marquez salaries. I believe they are number 1,2 highest payed players in the league.
ok, are DP’s protected or not??, NY has a lot to lose out of a protected DP list having to expose other guys in the process
expansion draft is lame. i would love to see a different system.
It seems, in fact, that you’ve miserably failed at making your point.
DPs are not autoprotected. You still have to use one of your 11 spots on them or they can be selected in the draft.
+1. I’d be surprised if Nyassi or Fucito go unprotected.
We are in quite a pickle though. If I had to guess, I’d say we’ll protect only Leo and Hurtado out of the current back four, and also let Sturgis dangle out there if Evans looks like he’ll actually be healthy to start next season.
So I think you’re looking at:
1. Keller
2. Hurtado
3. Gonzalez
4. Zakuani
5. Alonso
6. Nyassi
7. Evans
8. Fernandez
9. N’Kufo
10. Montero
11. Fucito
Although I imagine if Seattle actually won the Cup there could be significant sentiment to keep the starting 11 together and let youth go in favor of keeping Ianni, Riley, etc.—especially if any of them have special runs through the playoffs.
DP’s are auto-protected so remove henry and marquez and add 2 more.
Nielsen on a 1 yr loan so idk how that would work
The only one I really disagree with you on as far as leaving unprotected is Will Johnson. He is far better than Warner or Gonzalez (actually one of the best 2 way midfielder in all of MLS) and is just about as young as Warner and Gonzalez.
NYRB Projected Expansion Si
1. Henry
2. Marquez
3. Richards
4. Lindpere
5. Ballouchy
6. Ream
7. Miller
8. Albright
9. Mendes
10.da Luz
11. Bouna
Unprotected, likely to be selected:
Hall, Sinisa
Unprotected, hard to predict interest they’d garner:
Nielsen, Chinn, Ibrahim, Borman
Unprotected, unlikely to be selected:
Sutton, Sassano, Garcia, Boyens, Robinson
Protected:
Tchani (GA,right?) Agudelo & Chirgadze (Academy)
This should be interesting. I think the big wildcard here is Nielsen, if he’s as good as HB says he is. I really pray they don’t protect Ibrahim.
RSL will almost for sure protect the following 8 players: Beckerman, Borchers, Espindola, Johnson, Morales, Olave, Rimando and Saborio (also they get to protect Nimo as a Gen Ad).
They almost for sure will not protect Alexandre, Campos, Gonzalez, Schuler, Horst, McKenzie, Melia, and Reynish.
That leaves Beltran, Findley, Grabavoy, Paulo Jr., Russell, Wingert and Williams on the bubble from which they can pick 3. Although Paulo Jr. is an International, they could protect him since they have 8 internationals and under my scenario protected only 4 so far. Out of the bubble group, I would leave unprotected Andy Williams (age), and Russell (age and Beltran plays his position). But what 3 to pick between Beltran, Wingert, Findley, Grabavoy and Paulo Jr.? I would try to trade Findley to one of the expansion teams (Portland since he’s an Oregon State Boy?) or possibly trade Nimo to Portland in return for not drafting a RSL player. I really like what I’ve seen of Paulo Jr. so I would keep him. I would keep Beltran. He’s young and has played well this year. And I would keep Grabavoy, since he is such a key to depth in the RSL midfield. That would leave Russell, Wingert, Williams unprotected which would be a hit. There is an argument to be made to keep Wingert and unprotect Paulo Jr. I just think its harder to find a good attacker than a decent outside back.
RSL
Beckerman
Morales
Saborio
Espindola
Findley
Rimando
Olave
Borchers
Beltran
Warner
Gonzalez
I would think we would pull back Wingert/Russell/Johnson/Grabavoy if an RSL player was picked. Alex Nimo has been on loan with the Timbers for awhile so maybe we can do a trade with them instead of them selecting a non-protected player.
I still hope Andy Williams is still wearing aa RSL kit after 2010. It would be a real bummer to see him go play for an expansion team so late in his career.
Not 100% on this but I think FCD had to protect its player on loan 2 years ago when Seattle had the Expansion draft.
RSL still has Andy Williams.
Does anyone know about players on loan? The Galaxy have 3 Brazilians on loan from Sao Paolo. Do they need to protect them or could they be picked by another team, even if there is no agreement in place past this season?
Sounders will protect Nyassi. I think Jacqua is going to be a Timber, as much as it hurts to say that.
I’m sure RSL will lose one or two solid contributors like Robbie Russel or Ned Grabavoy. Hopefully they can hold onto their up and coming young prospects like nelson gonzalez and Paulo…
Yep, almost all expansion teams still have the majority of their expansion picks their first year. But after two years……?
And you actually prove the point about how little the expansion draft helps competitiveness. You’ve got a roster with a lot of your expansion picks. Le Toux is a major abberation. The rest of those guys are either young cheap talent (the smart way to pick players in expansion) who weren’t ready to be impact players (but might be good starters in 2 years) or guys who are journeymen.
DC could protect…
Boskovic, Jakovic, James, Varela, Simms, Quaranta, Pontius, McTavish, Wallace, King, Carriero. They get Hamid, Najar and Shanosky for free (Homegrown)
Assume Moreno and Pena are retiring. That leaves Barklage, Burch, Christman, Graye, Morsink, Perkins, Rice, Zayner, Allsop, and Hernandez available. No front office in their right minds is willing to pay Perkins, Allsop, or Hernandez’s salaries, given their production this season. Probably loose two of Morsink, Christman, Burch, or Rice. I can see arguments for protecting Hernandez or Perkins, leaving King or Carriero out in the cold. Ultimately, this draft can hurt DC, and there are steals to be had on their list since a lot of their minimum salary young players got a LOT of PT this year (Christman, King, Morsink, Graye, and Zayner, who makes just above minimum).
TFC’s 10 selections included Jason Kreis, Will Hesmer, Nate Jaqua, Paulo Nagamura, Adrian Serioux, and Danny O’Rourke. They also picked Tim Regan and immediately traded him for Edson Buddle. Mo knew how to pick ’em, he just didn’t know to keep ’em.
will angel count as an unprotected international for the red bulls, considering he is out of contract, and they are clearly dumping him?
The expansion draft as a way of building a team is vastly overr-ated. Every year, people look at the list and talk about what a good team that will be. People did that with RSL, with SJ. My theory is…if you get 2 starters and 3 young, cheap reserves out of the expansion draft you did outstanding. You’re not going to pick your team, you’re not going to get difference makers (that’s what RSL thought they were doing).
For Vancouver and Portland, two teams with USL rosters, the best bet is either to fill a specific hole (like, if they need a left-footed outside back, or a tall target man) or to get cheap, young, athletic talent. Or get someone they can extort a draft pick from (or maybe trade to another team for someone else they want).
Ironically, just as the expansion draft doesn’t really help expansion teams that much, it really does hurt some of the strong teams in the league. You take someone like Houston or Columbus and every year for 4-5 years you subtract someone like Brad Evans. Ultimately it affects your depth–you’re just not as deep as you used to be. It’s not that you lost really good players (though sometimes you do), it’s mostly that you lose players who fit your system, fill particular roles and you then need to use acqusitions or draftpicks to refill those holes (rather than add on additional talent to the team).
Toronto is a bad example to make your point with considering the way Trader Mo did business up there.
oh and i forgot miglioranzi.
that’s 70% of the expansion team still with the club.
philly still has le toux, moreno, zimerman, jacobson, salinas, and knighton.
and that’s just off the top of my head.
E-draft sucks……. Hated it when the sounders participated. I’d much rather see the teams fork over money and cap exemptions and let the teams go out and buy a team. Better for them over the long haul, better for everyone else. Instead, we’ll see a handful of teams really hurt by this and little in return. Name an expansion player still with Toronto. How about Philly. Le Toux. Name another. I’ve made my point.
Wait, since when does DC have key players? They could be limited to protecting one player and be just fine (though he probably counts as a homegrown player, so never mind).
For the Sounders, I see Nyassi getting picked first, then either Jaqua or Fucito.