There were no major surprises on Real Salt Lake's expansion protected list, as the team clearly chose to protect their biggest contributors this year. Among the players that will be exposed when the Montreal Impact begin building their team in ernest during Wednesday's MLS Expansion Draft are forward Paulo Jr., midfielder Andy Williams and defender Robbie Russell.
MLS Expansion Draft 2011: Real Salt Lake Protected List
Any of those four players could start for many MLS teams and speaks to the depth of RSL’s team. Of those players, Paulo Jr. is the probably the most affordable, as he made just $42,000 last year. His season was cut short by injury though and he only ended up playing 468 MLS minutes this year. He did score two goals and have four assists in that limited time.
Protected list: Nick Rimando, Kyle Beckerman, Javier Morales, Jamison Olave, Nat Borchers, Will Johnson, Tony Beltran, Chris Schuler, Fabian Espindola, Alvaro Saborio, Chris Wingert.
Automatically protected: Luis Gil, Donny Toia, Nicolo Muniz
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