There weren’t any real shockers in today’s list reveal by the club.
The 2022 MLS offseason is in full swing, and today the 28 clubs revealed their Expansion Draft protection lists ahead of tomorrow’s draft for newcomers St. Louis City SC.
Here is where FC Dallas went with their list:
FC Dallas Expansion Draft Protected List
Protected (12): Paul Arriola, Matt Hedges, Bernard Kamungo, Sebastian Lletget, José Martínez, Jimmy Maurer, Tsiki Ntsabeleng, Jáder Obrian, Maarten Paes, Nkosi Tafari, Ema Twumasi and Alan Velasco.
Automatically Protected Players (14): Antonio Carrera, Edwin Cerrillo, Justin Che, Kalil ElMedkhar, Marco Farfan, Jesús Ferreira, Eddie Munjoma, Isaiah Parker, Paxton Pomykal, Beni Redžić, Thomas Roberts, Dante Sealy, Brandon Servania and Collin Smith.
Available for selection (6): Lucas Bartlett, Nicky Hernandez, Franco Jara, Nanu, Facundo Quignon and Joshué Quiñónez.
Each current MLS club had the opportunity to protect 12 players from their 2022 roster. Generation adidas players (who did not graduate at the end of the 2022 season) and Homegrown Players (ages 25 and under) on a club’s off-budget roster are automatically protected and do not count against a team’s 12 protected roster spots.
Designated Players are not automatically protected. If a Designated Player has a no-trade clause in his contract, then the club must protect him in the Expansion Draft.
This is pretty close to what we projected earlier in the week. As I mentioned in the notes section, someone would move up if Ferreira counted as an HGP. In this case, veteran keeper Maurer earned that honor.
The six open for selection aren’t really shocking, though. Two players are on a loan that will likely not return in 2023, one player sounds like he’s on his way out based on his social media, another player is probably not having his option picked up, and then there are two really pricy international players.
So even if any of these players are selected, it won’t be the worst. FC Dallas would get some small compensation in the form of $50k GAM.