The Seattle Sounders have announced their protected list for Wednesday's expansion draft, in which Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps will select from the unprotected players to help form their squads for 2011.

Protected Players

Osvaldo Alonso

Brad Evans

Alvaro Fernandez

Mike Fucito

Jhon Kennedy Hurtado

Nate Jaqua

Kasey Keller

Fredy Montero

Jeff Parke

James Riley

Steve Zakuani



Unprotected Players

Julien Baudet

Terry Boss

Danny Earls

David Estrada

Leo Gonzalez

Taylor Graham

Patrick Ianni

Roger Levesque

Tyrone Marshall

Miguel Montaño

Blaise Nkufo

Pat Noonan

Sanna Nyassi

Zach Scott

Michael Seamon

Nathan Sturgis

Tyson Wahl

So after the Sounders announce the trade of Pete Vagenas to Colorado Rapids in exchange for Julien Baudet and Danny Earls, Seattle elected to leave their two newest players unprotected.

While there aren't many big surprises on this list--many had hoped Blaise Nkufo would stick around, but most who follow the Sounders realized there was a great likelihood that he would be left unprotected--Sounders supporters shouldn't fret too much if one of their favorite players is on the unprotected list. After all, Seattle can only lose two players in this expansion draft. The true worry is seeing one of our favorites wearing a Whitecaps kit, or even worse, donning yellow and green.