SANDY, Utah (Sunday, December 10, 2017) – Real Salt Lake has announced the 11 players on the club’s Protected Player list in advance of the 2017 MLS Expansion Draft, taking place this Tuesday, December 12. Los Angeles FC will select five players with no club losing more than one player to the expansion side.
The following 11 RSL players will not be eligible for selection by LAFC when Major League Soccer’s newest club makes its selections:
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
FW Luis Silva
In addition to those 11 players, Homegrown Players DF Danilo Acosta, FW Jordan Allen, MF Jose Hernandez, FW Brooks Lennon and FW Ricardo Velazco are exempt from the draft and cannot be selected. Glad and Saucedo are products of RSL’s Academy, too, but are no longer exempt from the Expansion Draft because they were listed on RSL’s senior roster in 2017.
With the Protected Player list established, this means that the following players under contract in 2017 with Real Salt Lake will be available for selection by LAFC:
Goalkeepers: Connor Sparrow, Matt VanOekel
Defenders: Tony Beltran, Reagan Dunk, Demar Phillips, Justin Schmidt, Chris Schuler, Chris Wingert
Midfielders: Nick Besler, Omar Holness, Sunny
Forwards: Chad Barrett, Yura Movsisyan
Real Salt Lake History in MLS Expansion Drafts
2006: Toronto FC – Jason Kreis selected (re-acquired by RSL in exchange for allocation money)
2007: San Jose Earthquakes – no RSL player selected
2008: Seattle Sounders FC – Nathan Sturgis selected
2009: Philadelphia Union – no RSL player selected (RSL traded Chris Seitz to Union in exchange for allocation money on eve of expansion draft)
2010: Portland Timbers/Vancouver Whitecaps FC – Portland selected Robbie Findley and David Horst
2011: Montreal Impact – Collen Warner selected
2014: New York City FC/Orlando City SC – NYCFC selected Ned Grabavoy and Chris Wingert
2016: Minnesota United/Atlanta United – Minnesota selected Jeff Attinella
* Prior to its inaugural 2005 campaign, Real Salt Lake 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 on November 19, 2004.
