Anticipating the Sporting KC Expansion Draft Protected List

It's time to discuss the Sporting KC Expansion Draft Protected List! Who stays? Who goes? Could Diego Rubio or Jacob Peterson not get protected?

With the full announcement of Atlanta United FC and Minnesota United FC entering MLS play in 2017 comes the expansion draft. MLS has announced this as well, and the rules that follow. As the draft approaches, conversations of who to protect, and who to leave unprotected will surface for each team. Sporting KC is a team with a lot of depth, but it’s pretty clear cut who should, and shouldn’t be protected.

Anticipating the Sporting KC Expansion Draft Protected List

The Rules

The rules for the 2016 protection list are relatively close to the rules of the past. Here is what you need to know as far as they go. Anybody who was on the roster at the end of the season can be taken in the draft, even if their contract is up, or they’re moving abroad. Atlanta and Minnesota will be allowed to select five players each. Once a player is taken from a team, that team can no longer have players selected from their list.

Second, anybody with Generation Adidas status that doesn’t graduate that designation this season, is automatically protected. Any Homegrown players on the supplemental roster are also automatically protected. Another interesting thing is the rules regarding International players.

Teams must protect a minimum number of players with International Player designations. Based on how many of those players they have, there is also a maximum number of players they can make available with that designation. Sporting KC only has five international spots filled. So they must protect at least three international players, and cannot make available more than two. That second number matters more for teams who have between eight and ten international players on their roster. Now that the rules have been explained, who should Sporting Protect?

Automatic Protection

Sporting KC has four homegrown players, and they all meet the qualifications for being automatically protected. Kevin Ellis, John Kempin, Erik Palmer Brown, and Daniel Salloi are all automatically protected, as they are a part of the supplemental roster, with the Homegrown designation.

Goalkeepers

Tim Melia should be an automatic protection. That really goes without saying. The question is whether or not Alec Kann should be. I’m going to go with not protecting him. With each team only getting to select five players, it’s more likely that better goalkeepers will be available. Unless Minnesota has a soft spot for Kann, he’s not getting taken. They also have Kempin auto-protected as well. If Kann got taken, Kempin would most likely step right in as the backup.

Defenders

Three of Sporting’s five international players are in this position group: Jimmy Medranda, Nuno Coelho, and Ever Alvarado. Sporting can protect every single one if they chose, but I can only see Medranda and Coelho getting protected. After that, expect Matt Besler and Saad Abdul-Salaam to get protected as well. With Ellis already getting protected via his HomeGrown designation, they would have their backup center-back. They also have a few Swope Park Rangers who seem poised to break into the roster for Sporting KC. That leaves Ike Opara rather expendable. Ike had a sky-high ceiling, but so many injuries makes him relatively unreliable. If he were to get selected, Sporting seem to have enough options to replace him. So you can leave him unprotected.

Midfielders

Four (technically six) defenders are on the list at the moment. That leaves room for at least four midfielders. Benny Feilhaber is guaranteed to be protected, and so is Graham Zusi. Throw in Roger Espinoza and you have your staple midfield group. With the International players, Sporting must protect at least three. Since they most likely won’t protect Ever Alvarado, that means at least one protection slot must go to either Diego Rubio, or Soni Mustivar. The only way you can protect both is by allowing Jacob Peterson to go un-protected. I’d be shocked if Mustivar doesn’t get protected. Now, that leads us to the forwards.

Forwards

I would be shocked if Dom Dwyer didn’t get protected. He’s been one of the most prolific scorers in the league since he got his big break in 2014. Even if he were to leave to Europe, another team could select him and they would hold his re-entry rights. That’s something Sporting learned the hard way with Kei Kamara. They proved they learned their lesson with Roger Espinoza. The only question here is whether or not to protect Rubio. Rubio has showed some good traits this year, but is still quite the diamond in the rough. Safe to say, those rough edges may take longer to smooth out if he continues to sit behind Dwyer. He might be hoping he goes unprotected, but Sporting should know he would be a great pick for Minnesota or Atlanta. That would unfortunately leave Peterson off.

Notable Omissions

The most notable omissions for me here are Jacob Peterson and Ike Opara. I already explained why Opara is a good candidate to get left off the protection list. Peterson though is in a tough spot. Jacob Peterson has had a fantastic season, but between him and Rubio, Rubio has much more left in the tank that Peterson. If Sporting felt like Rubio was expendable, then Peterson would, and should be next in line to get protected. The next notable omission would be Brad Davis. It’s notable because of his name, but frankly, Davis has been a buzzkill the last few weeks. He doesn’t have the energy to play as a two-way winger, and just hasn’t seemed to fit in well. Another omission is Chance Meyers. The emergence of Abdul-Salaam as one of the top fullbacks in the league makes Meyers expendable.

The List In Final Form

Again, This is the list that you can anticipate. This isn’t the official list. The end of the season just might have a bit of a role to play though in deciding between Rubio and Peterson. I still think this is how it ends up going: