Expansion Draft! Oh! Excitement!

By: Laurie | November 25th, 2008

I have a complete shift in attitude this year. In previous years I’ve looked at Expansion Drafts with trepidation as I worry about my favorite players getting stolen away from my favorite team(s). But this year I’m thinking, “Wow! This is exciting!”

Maybe it’s because I’m from Seattle. Or something.

Expansion draft is tomorrow, and the teams have released their lists of protected and non-protected players. Seattle gets ten choices, with no more than one coming from each team. This means that four teams will go away with all their players.

So what will Seattle be looking for? (And just for the record, did you know that the Sounders FC website is translated into twelve languages, including both Mandarin and Cantonese? Seattle, we have arrived in Cosmopolitanville.)

Signings up to this point are: Kasey Keller, goalkeeper; Freddie Ljungberg, attacking midfielder/underwear model (oh, what, I’m just supposed to ignore that fact?); Sebastien LeToux, forward; and Sanna Nyassi, midfielder.

(Wikipedia is also telling me that the Sounders have signed Taylor Graham, although it’s not on the official Sounders FC website. We all know that Wikipedia is NEVER wrong. Can anybody fill us in?)

I’m guessing that since Seattle already has US international Keller and DP Ljungberg, they’re probably not looking to add any high-paid players to the roster. I’m guessing that instead they’ll be searching for those diamonds in the rough. What do you think?

Rather than offer up my own thoughts on who will be picked, here are the thoughts from a few others. Leave your own ideas in the comments. Complete list of exposed players at the bottom.

First, some “how will it affect our team” thoughts:

Toronto Offside’s thoughts.
LA Galaxy thoughts.
Chicago Offside thoughts.
San Jose’s thoughts.
Ives Galarcep’s Red Bull thoughts.
3rd Degree’s FC Dallas thoughts.

And some “Who Should Seattle Take?” thoughts:
DCUMD’s thoughts.
Climbing the Ladder’s thoughts.
Beautiful Game in the Emerald City’s thoughts.
Going to the Mat’s thoughts.

If you have more good links, leave them in the comments.

CHIVAS USA – Kraig Chiles, Jim Curtin, Eric Ebert, Dejair Ferreira, Jorge Flores, Anthony Hamilton, Dan Kennedy, Gerson Mayen, Roberto Nurse, Daniel Paladini, Lance Parker, Ante Razov, Keith Savage, Claudio Suarez, Carey Talley, Zach Thornton, Lawson Vaughn, Sasha Victorine, Raphael Wicky, Alex Zotinca.

CHICAGO FIRE – Michael Banner, C.J. Brown, Calen Carr, Tomasz Frankowski, Andy Herron, Kai Kasiguran, Tyler Kettering, Stephen King, Peter Lowry, Lider Marmol, Nick Noble, Marco Pablo Pappa, Brandon Prideaux, Austin Washington, Daniel Woolard.

COLORADO RAPIDS – Jose Burciaga, Preston Burpo, Terry Cooke, Greg Dalby, John DiRaimondo, Facundo Erpen, Brian Grazier, Jordan Harvey, Justin Hughes, Stephen Keel, Kosuke Kimura, Tom McManus, Mike Petke, Kwame Sarkodie, Tim Ward, Cesar Zambrano.

COLUMBUS CREW – Kevin Burns, Cory Elenio, Brad Evans, Jason Garey, Eddie Gaven, Andy Gruenebaum, George Josten, Ryan Junge, Steven Lenhart, Stefani Miglioranzi, Adam Moffat, Pat Noonan, Stanley Nyazamba, Duncan Oughton, Andrew Peterson, Ricardo Pierre-Louis, Brian Plotkin, Kenny Schoeni.

FC DALLAS – Ray Burse, Andrew Daniels, Duilio Davino, Michael Dello-Russo, Aaron Pitchkolan, Jeff Rowland, Victor Sikora, Spencer Wadsworth, David Wagenfuhr, Jamie Watson, Chase Wileman.

D.C. UNITED – Jeff Carroll, Pat Carroll, Ryan Cordeiro, Louis Crayton, Francis Doe, Rod Dyachenko, Marcelo Gallardo, Quavas Kirk, Ibrahim Koroma, Gonzalo Martinez, Domenic Mediate, Ryan Miller, Ben Olsen, Gonzalo Peralta, Craig Thompson, James Thorpe, Joseph Vide, Zach Wells, Michael Zaher.

HOUSTON DYNAMO – Johnny Alcaraz, Corey Ashe, Wade Barrett, Kyle Brown, Tony Caig, Michael Chabala, Nick Hatzke, John Michael Hayden, Patrick Ianni, Nate Jaqua, Richard Mulrooney, Pat Onstad, Erik Ustruck, Craig Waibel, Corbin Waller, Chris Wondolowski, Stephen Wondolowski.

KANSAS CITY WIZARDS – Kevin Hartman, Aaron Hohlbein, Michael Kraus, Eric Kronberg, Matt Marquess, Rauwshan McKenzie, Kurt Morsink, Boris Pardo, Nelson Pizarro, Ryan Pore, Abe Thompson, Ivan Trujillo, Tyson Wahl, Lance Watson.

LOS ANGELES GALAXY – Vardan Adzemian, Charles Alamo, Ely Allen, Jeremy Barlow, Steve Cronin, Eduardo Dominguez, Joe Franchino, Michael Gavin, Jovan Kirovski, Chris Klein, Mike Munoz, Michael Randolph, Josh Saunders, Josh Tudela, Peter Vagenas, Julian Valentin, Josh Wicks.

NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION – Jose Angulo, Gabriel Badilla, Samuel Brill, Gary Flood, Joe Germanese, Brad Knighton, Brandon Manzonelli, Maurcio Matamoros, Pat Phelan, Khano Smith, Wells Thompson, Chris Tierney, Brandon Tyler, Doug Warren, Argenis Fernandez Zapata.

NEW YOR RED BULLS – Danleigh Borman, Oscar Echeverry, John Gilkerson, Diego Jimenez, Gordan Kljestan, Chris Leitch, Mike Magee, Andongcho Mbuta, Carlos Mendes, Michael Palacio, Jeff Parke, Caleb Patterson, Juan Pietravallo, David Roth, Sainey Touray, John Wolyniec.

REAL SALT LAKE – Nik Besagno, Kenny Cutler, Kenneth Deuchar, David Horst, Ian Joy, Dustin Kirby, Dema Kovalenko, Clint Mathis, Tino Nunez, Kevin Reiman, Kyle Reynish, Nathan Sturgis, Brennan Tennelle, Andy Williams.

SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES – Miguel Arce, Jay Michael Ayres, John Cunliffe, Eric Denton, Michael Ghebru, Gavin Glinton, Ned Grabavoy, Kelly Gray, Michael Gustavson, Matt Hatzke, Ronnie O’Brien, James Riley, Jamil Roberts, Adam Smarte, Davide Somma.

TORONTO FC – Nana Attakora-Gyan, Kilian Elkinson, Hunter Freeman, Gabe Gala, Derek Gaudet, Joey Melo, Rohan Ricketts, Tyler Rosenlund, Carlos Ruiz, Jarrod Smith, Johann Smith, Greg Sutton, Marco Velez.