I
think Harvey will be much more active in the off-season than in the last couple
of years... It's going to be exciting to
watch.
§ GM extraordinaire Laura Harvey
§
Jess Fishlock, our Welsh Dragon (she has said she would probably end her career
with the Reign. She might even be an
assistant coach.)
( i realize that's not a formal commitment on either side )
§ Megan Rapinoe (A healthy Pinoe with few USWNT commitments will be a huge help!)
§ Naomi Kawasumi (A full season of Naho runs!)
§
Gabriëlla Melis (A healthy Manon up front will frighten the rest of the league.)
§ Haley Kopmeyer (#KOP2019)
§ Beverly Gobel Yanez (Why she hasn't been called to the USWNT is baffling.)
§ Lauren Barnes (Lu is a deserving winner of the NWSL defender of the year in 2016!)
§ Kendall Fletcher (A couple more seasons of Super-FLETCH who easily won team MVP for 2016!)
§
Carson Pickett (2015 top draft pick. Developing nicely. May have a future on USWNT.)
§
Havana Solaun (2014 top
draft pick -- possibly will be #10 if Little leaves)
§
Rachel Corsie (May have Scotland
National Team commitments in Euro 2017, but i don't think she would have spent
three months in Seattle
recovering from her MCL tear if she wasn't staying.)
§
Rumi Utsugi (Left Back
or more likely filling the gap left by Keelin at DM.)
§
Kiersten Dallastream
(A 4
year Reign bulwark who did not play much this year. She had some flashes of her old brillance,
but i feel like she has lost a step. In rebuilding the team, every one of the 20
roster spots will be needed;
i know they don't want to release her, but suspect she will be
allowed to retire.)
§
Elli Reed (When Elli made it on the field this year she had some good
minutes, but she is low on the depth chart and has
not regained her awsome form from 2014.
With tight rosters and a big rebuilding i fear she will be the odd one
out
and will probably be allowed to retire.)
§ Kim Little (Sad for us, but she's going places: probably a good paycheck at Man City and a high finish for Scotland in Euro 2017.)
§
Hope Solo (Treated TERRIBLY by the USWNT. Is loyal to Seattle, but has lots of offers
in Sweden, France, Germany, UK)
§
Foxhoven (Retired
early in the 2016 season for health reasons.)
§
It's safe to say we're still reeling from Steph
Cox's retirement for financial reasons last year.
§ Now we've lost the irreplaceable Keelin Winters for financial reasons. (I'm still sobbing about that.)
A top priority for the leauge must be to find a way to pay these hard working athletes a living wage.
§
Paige Nielson (playing in Greece, possibly on
loan)
§
Antonia Göransson (is
recovering and playing in a lower level league at home in Sweden)
§
Summer Green (was injured when drafted, have heard
nothing since)
§
Verónica Pérez Murillo
(playing
in Sweden but still has Seattle ties?)
§
Arianna Romero Tellez (playing in
Iceland(??))
§
Merritt Mathias (who probably has decent trade
value, but would be great to keep at right back)
§
Michelle Cruz (who Harvey must believe in because
she's been kept on the roster for 3 years without playing!!)
§
Lindsay Elston (2016
walk-on, Seattle native, might not make the team, but probably not going
anywhere else)
§
Andi Tostanoski
(maybe stays on as 3rd keeper?)
That's
12 staying, so 8 roster spots availible. We have
fewer US/CAN/MEX National Team members than any other team (1), i personally
think we should be owed at least one
more. The National Team allocation wheel reset on
October 9th and we are 5th on that wheel.
Lucky for us, Portland lost their first spot on that wheel when the 2016
Championship match kicked off.
Pinoe, Fletch and Jess are all over 30 and likely have 2 seasons each in
them, so some proactive drafting could fill those
holes ahead of time. But i think we have at least one
championship season left with them.
The
big issues for 2017 are:
§
Little and Winters leave a huge hole to be filled in midfield,
§
we need a backup keeper,
§
and we still need to fill that gap at left back.
§
In addition, if next season is anything like this one, we're going
to need a couple of baseball players
just to make the tiebreaker into the
playoffs.
Pickett
and Barnes may be able to hold down left back, but neither is close to Steph Cox at that position.
I really like Andi,
but i don't think she's ready to be the #2 keeper.
I see Utsugi
slotting in for Keelin at DM and a new acquisition in
Kimmie's #10.
In
January's College Draft, barring trades, we've got two 1st round picks, and a
3rd and 4th round pick,
which by my calculation means 3rd, 5th, 25th and 35th
overall
Harvey
is a know wizard in the trading market.
My
dream would be to have Daniëlle Van De Donk of Arsenal or Mana Shim of
Portland for our attacking midfielder,
there is no evidence of either being
looked at, but Shim is underused in Portland and Van De Donk
has connections with Seattle
both through Arsenal and through her best friend Manon Melis.
A
close examination of the draft pool is an exersize
for the colder months, but a quick look at the nationally ranked
seniors shows
some very good midfielders at the top of the list.
The pundits seem agreed that Boston will
take #1 ranked Kadeisha Buchanan (West Virginia) with the first
pick.
She's already playing for the
Canadian national team and is an excellent left back, although she needs to
watch her yellow cards.
Number 4 ranked
Rose Lavelle of Wisconsisn
is getting a lot of attention. She can
run a game very well and could be
a nice apprentice to Kim Little;
although i don't know how we get her, with WNY picking ahead of us.
Number 10 Asheley
Lawrence of West Virginia is another Canadian with World Cup experince who i would love to see in the Blue and Back.
I know nothing about #3 Morgan Andrews from
USC but she is a mid fielder too. All
seem good options for our 3rd overall pick.
And if we could get the terrific goalkeeper 11th ranked Jane Campbell from
Stanford with our 5th overall, that would be great.
That
just leaves the Captain. I'm so sad that
Keelin is leaving, although i love that she is going
on to be a Firefighter
-- that feels so right for her.
Fishlock is
assistant captain and some people think she will have the armband next
year. There are also friends of mine
who are betting on Lauren Barnes.
Those
are two of my favorite players, but i'm not sure
they're the captain. I think Fletch has
an outside shot, but the frontrunners in my mind are Pinoe
and Kop.
I think Haley Kopmeyer would make a fantastic captain.