There were no huge surprised on the Chicago Fire's protected list, as Sean Johnson "graduated" from Generation Adidas as many expected he would. Among the players who were left exposed were Daniel Paladini (who was taken in our Mock Expansion Draft), defender Dan Gargan and forward Diego Chaves.
MLS Expansion Draft 2011: Chicago Fire Protected List
Maybe the biggest surprise to make the Fire's protected list was defender Cory Gibbs. Although he started 26 games for the Fire, he did make $150,000 last year and it's hard to see the Montreal Impact selecting such a middling player with such a relatively high salary.
Protected list: Sean Johnson - GK, Cory Gibbs - DEF, Jalil Anibaba - DEF, Gonzalo Segares - DEF, Pavel Pardo - MID, Logan Pause - MID, Marco Pappa - MID, Sebastian Grazzini - MID, Orr Barouch - FWD, Patrick Nyarko - FWD, Dominic Oduro - FWD
Automatically protected: Corben Bone - MID, Kellen Gulley - FWD, Victor Pineda - MID
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