The Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps have already started signing players, but today we will learn much more about what they intend to accomplish during the first season in MLS.
MLS Expansion Draft: Portland Timbers, Vancouver Whitecaps Really Start Building Teams
If past drafts are any indication, they’ll draft mostly players with an average of about three years of MLS experience and an average age of 25 years old.
If they intend to be competitive, they'll also draft players they intend to be on their roster to start the season. It's hard to know exactly what Toronto FC was thinking when they made their choices, but just one player they picked started the season on their roster and Paulo Nagamura only played 354 minutes with them in 2007 before being traded. TFC also finished with just 25 points, the worst of the past four expansion teams.
The San Jose Earthquakes (six), Seattle Sounders (seven) and Philadelphia (nine) all drafted mostly players that they intended to at least use as a foundation.
All three of those teams took at least one player with five years of experience and no more than five with fewer than three years of experience.
The Sounders, easily the most successful of the recent expansion teams, drafted three players with fewer than three years of experience and three players with at least five years of experience. Seven of the players they drafted were still with the team at the end of their second season.
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