Predicting the Dash Expansion Draft protection list
(image via Houston Dash)
The NWSL offseason will kick into full gear this week with the Expansion Draft on Friday. New clubs Bay FC and Utah Royals FC will be selecting players to begin shaping their rosters for the 2024 season. Each club currently in the league will submit a list of protected and unprotected players that will be made public tomorrow. Teams can protect a total of nine players, all other players will be unprotected and available to be chosen by on the expansion clubs. If a player is chosen, a team can protect one additional player. Unsigned unrestricted and restricted free agents are not eliigble to be taken in the Expansion Draft. Each current team can lose no more than two unprotected players.
We’ll find out the Houston Dash list tomorrow. The club released an updated roster in November of who is on the roster going into next season, and therefore eligible to be chosen in the Expansion Draft. Shea Groom, Emily Curran, Maria Sanchez, and Marisa Viggiano are currently free agents and Joelle Anderson is out of contract. Here is the Dash’s current roster of players that are eligible to be picked if left unprotected.
Goalkeepers: Emily Alvarado, Jane Campbell, Savannah Madden
Defenders: Alysha Chapman (maternity leave), Madelyn Desiano, Jylissa Harris, Natalie Jacobs, Katie Lind, Courtney Petersen, Ally Prisock
Midfielders: Andressa Alves, Sophie Hirst, Barbara Olivieri, Sarah Puntigam, Sophie Schmidt, Havana Solaun
Forwards: Michelle Alozie, Ryan Gareis, Paulina Gramaglia (on loan), Diana Ordonez, Nichelle Prince, Cameron Tucker
Having to choose just nine players to protect will be tough for Dash general manager Alex Singer. The exercise might be even tougher seeing as the Dash currently do not have a head coach. Singer will have to make the decisions here without the input of the person leading the team’s tactics and style of play. Trades could still happen once the lists are distributed to the teams. Expansion clubs could draft a player and trade them to a current team to gain more assets, like we saw happen with Kristie Mewis in the last Expansion Draft.
So, who do the Dash protect? Here’s who we would protect, and then we’ll give some reasoning.
Houston Dash predicted Expansion Draft protected list:
Jane Campbell, Katie Lind, Andressa Alves, Sophie Hirst, Sarah Puntigam, Sophie Schmidt, Michelle Alozie, Diana Ordonez, Nichelle Prince
Campbell is the current NWSL Goalkeeper of the Year and is a no-brainer here. She anchored the best defensive unit in the league last year and is a cornerstone for the club. Lind is a veteran leader, like Campbell, and also was a part of the stifling Houston defense in 2022. Andressa and Puntigam are new signings who didn’t get a full season this past year, with the Brazilian only playing in a handful of games after joining the team. They’re also both veterans who the club looks to want to build around.
Hirst was a rookie last season and showed flashes of being a solid starter in the league. With Viggiano a free agent and potentially on the way to a new team, Hirst could be a starter this season. The Dash offense was an issue all of last season but they have good pieces. The new head coach will need to find out how to get them clicking but keeping Alozie, Ordonez, and Prince, who all feature for their respective national teams, gives them something to build off of.
This list would leave a number of interesting players unprotected and available to be taken in the draft. Emily Alvarado just joined the team last season and the Mexican international could be a good goalkeeper for a team starting from scratch. Desiano, Harris, and Olivieri are all young players who played their first NWSL seasons in 2023. Jacobs, Petersen, and Prisock are defenders who have played a lot of matches in this league and can be valuable for a young club. Gareis and Tucker are still young players who could flourish given a fresh start.
We could see some surprises when the Dash list in announced tomorrow. Could some big names go unprotected? Will the Dash try and make a move for a player on another team’s unprotected list? Friday should be an interesting day. Let us know on X/Twitter who you would protect.
