By IVES GALARCEP
Teams hoping to land a quality player in today’s MLS Re-Entry Draft, the first phase of a two draft re-entry process, will find the selection much smaller than what was initially released by Major League Soccer earlier this week.
Several top options have been removed from the initial list, and won’t be available in today’s draft, including the likes of Marvell Wynne, Tony Tchani, Justin Mapp and Rodney Wallace. Others removed from the list include Chris Birchall, Gonzalo Segares, Stephen King, Kyle Nakazawa, Brian Perk, Josh Gardner, Steve Purdy and O’Brian White.
Teams had until 5pm on Thursday to reach agreements with players in the Re-Entry list, making it likely that many of the players now missing from the list agreed to new deals or were made Bona Fide contract offers by their teams. Segares reached agreement on a new contract on Thursday while Gardner was traded to Sporting KC for a second-round pick on Thursday.
The first re-entry draft takes place today, and teams selecting players today must either pick up the player’s current contract options or offer them new contracts close to what their old contracts were. Once this first Re-Entry draft is complete, the remaining players will then be made available in next week’s second phase re-entry draft, where teams can then select players and make them contract offers well below their original salaries. That draft figures to be the much busier one of the two.
Among the more high-profile names remaining on the list are Ike Opara, Conor Casey, Juan Pablo Angel, Ramiro Corrales and Julian De Guzman. None are likely to be selected based on the large size of their recent salaries. FC Dallas goalkeeper Kevin Hartman is another high-profile name available, a player who just might be selected today by a team needing a goalkeeper.
Here is the full list of players available for today’s re-entry draft (the draft order is based on reverse order of the 2012 MLS standings):
2012 MLS RE-ENTRY PROCESS LIST
CHICAGO FIRE
Jay Nolly, Corben Bone
CHIVAS USA
Juan Pablo Angel, Peter Vagenas, Danny Califf, Alejandro Moreno
COLUMBUS CREW
Will Hesmer, Julius James
COLORADO RAPIDS
Tyrone Marshall, Scott Palguta, Conor Casey, Hunter Freeman, Jamie Smith, Ian Joyce, Joseph Nane, Tyson Wahl
D.C. UNITED
Michael Chabala, Maicon Dos Santos
FC DALLAS
Bruno Guarda, Kevin Hartman, Julian De Guzman, Scott Sealy
HOUSTON DYNAMO
Colin Clark
SPORTING KC
Olukorede Aiyegbusi, Luke Sassano
LA GALAXY
Chad Barrett, Andrew Boyens, Bryan Jordan, Pat Noonan
MONTREAL IMPACT
Shavar Thomas
NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION
Tim Murray, Blair Gavin
NEW YORK RED BULLS
Bill Gaudette, Stephen Keel
PHILADELPHIA UNION
Chase Harrison
PORTLAND TIMBERS
Lovel Palmer
REAL SALT LAKE
Paulo Jr., Kyle Reynish
SEATTLE SOUNDERS
Andrew Weber, Mike Seamon
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES
Tim Ward, Jean Alexandre, Ramiro Corrales, Joseph Gjertsen, Ike Opara, Khari Stephenson
TORONTO FC
Eric Avila, Adrian Cann, Jeremy Hall, Ty Harden, Andrew Wiedeman
VANCOUVER WHITECAPS
John Thorrington
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What do you think of this list? Who are you surprised to see on the list? Who do you hope your team picks up?
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