Minnesota United sporting director Manny Lagos spent the past two days digging, an effort unrelated to weekend snowfall.
The list of players left unprotected by their Major League Soccer clubs — players eligible for selection in Tuesday's expansion draft — reached Lagos at 5 p.m. Sunday. The draft, which will be streamed live at mlssoccer.com beginning at 1 p.m. Tuesday, is expected to bring five players to the Loons' still-sparse roster of three defenders.
Atlanta, making its MLS debut with Minnesota in the fast-approaching 2017 season, picks first and United goes second. The teams alternate picks from there for five rounds.
Though less than 48 hours separated the player list and the draft, Lagos wasn't feeling rushed.
"For the past eight months we've created player profiles for every player in the league, and also a predictive analysis of who would be in the expansion draft," Lagos said.
Lagos said he felt "fairly pleased" with the depth of solid central midfielders and wide forwards on the list. Players at those positions would help flesh out the eventual 28-man roster, though Lagos did not rule out trading a pick for a player.
The team announced Sunday that it had acquired Colorado defender Joseph Greenspan by trading its third-round pick in the league's SuperDraft of college players Jan. 13.