SANDY — With the 2017 MLS expansion draft coming on Tuesday, Real Salt Lake announced that 11 players on the club are on the protected player list. The newly expanded club Los Angeles FC, a team that will prepare for its inaugural season in 2018, will pick five players, without any clubs having to lose more than one player to the expanded team.
According to the press release by RSL, the 11 players who will be ineligible for the selection by LAFC are:
GK Nick Rimando, DF Justen Glad, DF David Horst, DF Marcelo Silva, MF Kyle Beckerman, MF Luke Mulholland, MF Albert Rusnák, MF Sebastian Saucedo, FW Joao Plata, FW Jefferson Savarino and FW Luis Silva.
Along with 11 ineligible players, five of RSL's homegrown players are also exempt from the expansion draft. The five players include defender Danilo Acosta, forwards Jordan Allen, Brooks Lennon and Ricardo Velazco and midfielder Jose Hernandez.
The rest of the players on RSL's roster who are under contract will be available for the LAFC to pick for the draft. They are:
Goalkeepers: Connor Sparrow and Matt VanOekel
Defenders: Tony Beltran, Reagan Dunk, Demar Phillips, Justin Schmidt, Chris Schuler and Chris Wingert
Midfielders: Nick Besler, Omar Holness and Sunday Stephen
Forwards: Chad Barrett and Yura Movsisyan
RSL notes: RSL's inaugurable season was in 2005. On Nov. 19, 2004, the club selected Andy Williams, D.J. Countess, Pablo Brenes, Brian Kamler, Nelson Akwari, Chris Brown, Matt Behncke, Rusty Pierce, Kevin Ara and Erick Scott in the 2004 MLS expansion draft prior to its first season.
2007 and 2009 are the only years that an RSL player hasn't been selected in the past 10 years in an expansion draft.