NWSL teams released their protected player lists yesterday ahead of Racing Louisville's expansion draft on Nov. 12
The NC Courage didn't have to protect Jaelene Daniels, who announced her retirement earlier this week. They also didn't protect Canadian goalkeeper Steph Labbe, having recently acquired US keeper Casey Murphy. They chose to protect the rights to Sam Mewis, who is playing in England at the moment. For the rest of their list, it's about what you'd expect although I'm a bit surprised that they elected to protect all three of their forwards (Jess MacDonald, Lynn Williams and Kristen Hamilton) while exposing both of their promising young attackers (Milliet and Watt). I expected them to expose one of the attackers ... probably Hamilton ... and protect at least one of the two younger players. Maybe they're banking on Watt's knee injury to make her less likely to be lost to Louisville.
Around the league, there was a fair amount of gamesmanship around exposing national team allocated players and internationals since Louisville will have to weigh their ability to actually sign the players they select. Orlando, for example, exposed two core players in Ally Krieger and Ashlyn Harris as well as three other internationals ... probably expecting that they will prove difficult to sign. Likewise, Portland exposed Tobin Heath (rights), Adrianna Franch and Becky Sauerbrunn, and OL Reign exposed Megan Rapinoe, while Sky Blue exposed Carli Lloyd. None of those seem likely to sign for an expansion team which would force Louisville to have to make difficult trades to flip their rights. It's much safer to take players who actually want to be there. Plus, Angel City's expansion draft will be coming in 2022 ... probably.
Racing Louisville FC to Reveal Their Selections on Nov. 12 Live on Twitch
www.nwslsoccer.com