New England Soccer Today

The Future is Now

Photo credit: Andy Mead

Photo credit: Andy Mead

Amid a conspicuously quiet winter, the Revolution brain trust will come out of hibernation on Thursday for the MLS SuperDraft, which kicks off at 1:00pm.

The Revolution hold a pick in each of the first two rounds this year (10th and 30th overall), and also have a third round pick (51st overall) at their disposal. Their fourth round pick was traded to Vancouver in 2014 as part of the Daigo Kobayashi trade.

The first and second rounds will be conducted Thursday and will be streamed live via mlssoccer.com. The third and fourth rounds will be held on Tuesday via teleconference.

Here are a few short kicks on some Revolution-related SuperDraft items ahead of Thursday’s proceedings:

-According to the latest (and therefore greatest) set of MLS Mock Drafts, Clemson center back Kyle Fisher, Syracuse central midfielder Julian Buescher, and North Carolina fullback Jordan McCrary are among the names slotted to go to New England with the 10th overall pick.

-Among those who’ve been taken with the 10th overall pick in recent years: Sporting KC midfielder Connor Hallisey (2015), Toronto FC defender Nick Hagglund (2014), Toronto FC defender Eriq Zavaleta (2013 – selected by Seattle), Columbus Crew midfielder Ethan Finlay (2012), and Philadelphia Union striker C. J. Sapong (2011 – selected by Sporting KC).

-Should the Revolution use the 10th overall pick to select a player instead of trading it away, it’ll be the club’s first roster addition in 257 days. Not that anyone is counting, or anything.

-Don’t be surprised if the Revolution are once again tempted to do a little wheeling and dealing, as they’ve traded picks in each of the last three drafts. In 2013, they acquired the first overall pick from Toronto to select Andrew Farrell, then in 2014 made moves with Columbus and Colorado to obtain the fourth and 11th overall picks to select Steve Neumann and Patrick Mullins, respectively. Last year, they traded their second round pick to Seattle for Sean Okoli.

-Speaking of trades, here’s who was selected using the picks New England traded away to obtain the above players: Kyle Bekker (2013 third overall pick – Toronto), Marlon Hairston (2014 12th overall pick – Colorado), Grant Van De Casteele (2014 19th overall pick – Colorado), and Tyler Miller (2015 second round pick – Seattle).

-While the club has been generally successful when it comes to first round picks during the Jay Heaps regime, they’ve swung and missed quite often during the second round and beyond. In fact, only one player taken by the Revolution after the first round in the last four years remains on the roster: midfielder Donnie Smith, who’s only appeared in two matches for New England in his three seasons.

Leave a Reply