WVHooligan - Soccer Blog

Continuing on today with our Expansion Draft coverage here. I liked the west coast so much I decided to stick with it for another day by moving up to San Jose for today’s list. The Quakes had the joy of be apart of this last year but now they are back on the other side of the table in terms of protecting players.

Just a recap, each club has to protect 11 players, Designated Players (DP) have to be included in the protected list, Generation adidas players that aren set to graduate out of the program are also automatically protected from the draft and do not have to be placed on a protected list.

So on to San Jose, which may have a trickier time than their California rivals the LA Galaxy.

The Protected:

1. Darren Huckerby – NO reason to expose the best player on the team and the one that the fans love. He was one of the biggest reasons why this club even found it’s way into playoff contention this year.
2. Joe Cannon – Same as Huckerby, arguable the best keeper in league history cannot be left exposed.
3. Ramiro Corrales – Heart and sole of the defensive midfield, they’d be silly to even consider it after he got hurt.
4. Ronnie O’Brien – Irish international that has little chance of even being exposed. Plus Seattle wouldn’t want to take on his contract if they left him open.
5. Arturo Alvarez – Arty finally got his groove back in San Jose, he will be a vital part of this club’s offense next year.
6. Nick Garcia – Defense is centrally based around Garcia. They gave up a number one pick to get this guy last year.
7. Ryan Cochrane – Exposed and taken last year, it won’t be the case this time around.
8. Francisco Lima – Their midfield came alive with Lima and Huckerby, I look for them to build around these two in the off season a bit more.
9. Ryan Johnson – Young forward that really came alive this year in the middle of the season. I look forward to seeing him develop a bit more under Frank Yallop.
10. Scott Sealy – Traded for him in midseason, I highly doubt they would give up a striker here unless they are looking elsewhere to sign one. If that is the case I could see Sealy get exposed.
11. Jason Hernandez – Another vital part of their defense.

Not Protected, Could Be Taken:

1. Eric Denton – I think if they expose Sealy to the draft they will protect Denton. I really went back and forth on that but I kind of see him getting left out here and possibly exposed.
2. Gavin Glinton – Probably stands the risk of exposure but will he be taken in another expansion draft?
3. James Riley – He had his moments that make me think they won’t expose him but he also had other moments that lead me to believe he will be exposed.
4. Mikel Arce – I wonder about this Spanish international because he is on the development side of the ball here and not the senior roster. Maybe some Quakes fans can enlighten me on if he showed any promise in his short time by the Bay. If not, he won’t be protected.

Not Protected, Probably Won’t Be Taken:

1. Jovan Kirovski – Another club for Jovan just doesn’t seem likely to me at this point. He’s more trade bait than anything.
2. Shea Salinas – Showed some promise but not nearly enough that is worth using an expansion draft pick on.

For the most part I doubt if any Quakes will be pick this year. Of course it always comes down to who is open and who is not. Out of the ones that I think could be left open for the draft I could see a Eric Denton taken. What the Quakes did last year in their draft was a very defensive style of picking. I wonder if that kind of style will be used by Seattle or not as we have seen that it works a bit better than most had thought. The Quakes were highly competitive this year and nearly had a shot at the playoffs.

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