Ahead of today's Expansion Draft and Friday's Re-Entry Draft, D.C. United General Manager Dave Kasper answered a few questions regarding United's strategy heading into this busy time of year.
Watch it live at 2:00 p.m. HERE
As a General Manager, how do you prepare for an expansion draft?
Dave Kasper: We have been discussing and planning for the Expansion Draft for practically this entire year. I have learned that you cannot be too cagey with the Expansion Draft. It is important to balance both short-term and long-term needs, but we feel we made the right decisions with our protected list (see the list here).
You said last year's focus was finding proven winners within MLS, creating a foundation through the Re-Entry Draft. Now that we have a core, what is your focus?
Kasper: We want to add more quality depth to our team and make our team better. We are in four competitions next year and we will need a big squad to compete properly in all of them. Most importantly, we want to find players that fit our culture.
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How has your approach to both the Re-Entry draft and SuperDraft changed with last year's success and a lower draft pick?
Kasper: We may not acquire as many players in this year's Re-Entry Drafts as we did last year, but we feel there is some good value there. We have been studying the lists since we received them last week and doing our proper diligence. We are confident we will find a good piece in the Re-Entry Draft.
As for the SuperDraft, we feel this is a good crop of players, and we will end up with some quality additions. We have been successful in the past several years with the college draft and we expect the same outcome with January's SuperDraft.
Confused by the rules of the Expansion Draft? We've got you covered with a quick refresher.
