Re-Entry Draft Busy Day for KC

Lots of coming and going today for KC when it came to today's Re-Entry draft. With the first pick of round 2, DC United selected Josh Wolff and shortly after announced that they'd agreed to a new 1 year contract with a club option year for the 2012 season. With the next pick, another long tenured KC player left the team, as Chivas USA selected Jimmy Conrad, returning Conrad to California where I think most people expected him to go after he retired to take his turn in following his spouse around as his wife has during his playing career. My "tribute posts" to both players will likely be out tomorrow.

With their first pick in the draft, KC grabbed Frankie Hejduk from Columbus. When the pick was made it certainly brought some interesting thoughts on the contract situation of Michael Harrington. With Harrington out of contract it seemed like KC was either looking for depth to back him up or a replace should Harrington not re-sign with the club. He would have been an interesting addition, but wasn't exactly my favorite pick as I'd been unimpressed with his performance this year. And with him turning 37 during the 2011 season, while he'd continue to show is crazy fitness level, his skill level is certainly deteriorating. Him as a veteran sub would be ok, but the pick worried me about Harrington's contract status.

Hejduk, though, was only a SKC Wizard for a few hours before his rights were traded away. KC made a trade with the LA Galaxy sending the rights for Hejduk to LA in return for the rights to Luke Sassano. Sassano spent the 2010 season with New York. Sassano made 3 appearances for New York, 2 starts in the 2010 season. KC now holds Sassano's rights and will have the ability to sign him. In the 2010 season, Sassano made $40,000 this past season, so signing him is extremely unlikely to break the bank. And while it's disappointing to see Conrad and Wolff go they create over $400,000 in cap space for KC with those two no longer on KC's books. If Sassano's signed he could certainly see plenty of time next season with Stephane Auvray, Craig Rocastle, and Shavar Thomas all potentially missing games as part of the Gold Cup this summer. And with Sassano being able to play midfield and defense he could certainly step in to any of those positions.

The final interesting player news of the day came from team's press release regarding the Sassano trade. The team announced that the following players are currently on the roster for 2011: Korede Aiyegbusi, Davy Arnaud, Stephane Auvray, Matt Besler, Omar Bravo, Teal Bunbury, Sunil Chhetri, Birahim Diop, Roger Espinoza, Jack Jewsbury, Kei Kamara, Nick Kounenakis, Eric Kronberg, Chance Myers, Jimmy Nielsen, Craig Rocastle, Ryan Smith, Shavar Thomas and Graham Zusi. What this means is that the only player still out of contract at this time is Michael Harrington (and Sassano obviously). There's also no Zoltan Hercegfalvi on there as well meaning it looks like his time in KC may be done too. Jon Kempin isn't listed either, but that likely is because of his home grown status and doesn't mean KC's already given up on their first home grown signing. Certainly more moves are on the way, including the "young DP" rumors that are continuing to be talked about and the Aurelien Collin rumors.

So there looks like there could be plenty of interesting information coming out in the next few weeks, including this tweet from Robb Heineman earlier today.