Since 1997, MLS has held a special draft for all incoming teams into the league. The format has changed a bit over the last 20 years, however the idea is still the same. Current teams are allowed to protect a certain amount of players on their roster, while leaving the rest exposed for the expansion team or teams to draft. In previous years, once a player was selected from a team, said team could remove a player from their exposed list, but could still have other players selected. Now that the league has grown past that, once a player is selected from a team, that team cannot have another player selected.
A History of MLS Expansion Drafts
