The NWSL has released the date and time of the expansion draft, in addition to the official set of rules to determine the building of the Houston Dash. The Dash will have the chance to draft up to ten players from the existing eight teams in the league.
The draft will take place this Friday at 11 AM EST, held via conference call.
Teams will be able to protect players from the expansion draft. Here are the rules for the existing teams:
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- All teams with three or four U.S. national team players must leave at least one player unprotected. That means Western New York is safe from losing an allocated U.S. player. FC Kansas City and Seattle Reign FC are popular targets of speculation with four players each.
- The teams who did not make the 2013 playoffs (Boston, Chicago, Seattle, Washington) may protect ten players total.
- The teams who did make the playoffs (Kansas City, Portland, Sky Blue, Western NY) may only protect nine.
- Clubs must protect players who are: on loan from another league (for example, Seattle’s Beverly Goebel); non-allocated internationals (Washington’s Jodie Taylor); or players who have contractual agreements that limit trades or movement.
As for Houston, here are the rules that they must follow:
- The Dash may only select up to two U.S. allocated players, one Canadian allocated player, and one Mexican allocated player.
- They may only select up to two players from any club. If they do pick a U.S. allocated player from another team, that team is now safe from any further picks.
- For every player Houston selects from a team, that team may then add an additional player to its protected list.
And finally, the list of players eligible for the expansion draft to be held this Friday:
- Any current NWSL player, including all allocated players from the three federations
- Any discovery player
- Any player claimed via waivers, regardless if that player currently is signed
- Any player currently on loan to a different league
- Any player whose rights are controlled by a NWSL team
- Any player on loan from another league, any non-roster
A list of protected and exposed players will be available Wednesday.
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