The rules for the MLS Expansion Draft have not yet been made public, but details are slowly emerging. Adrian Hanauer revealed during the Seattle Sounders End-of-Year Business Meeting that teams would receive allocation money for each player selected in the draft, a change from past practices. Sounder at Heart has since learned that each player selected will net the original team $50,000 in allocation, maxing out at $100,000 if two players are selected. Allocation Money can be used to buy down the salary-cap hit on new contracts, effectively increasing the amount of money teams can spend.

A story on MLSsoccer.com has also revealed that not all Homegrown Players are automatically exempt from the expansion draft, as they had in previous years. This year, only Homegrown Players not on the senior roster will be exempt. Generally speaking, the senior roster is made up of the 18-20 highest paid players, all of whom count against the team's salary cap.

This rule tweak should not have much effect on the Sounders, though. Sounder at Heart has also learned that DeAndre Yedlin, Sean Okoli and Aaron Kovar are all on the team's supplemental roster and will be exempt from the Expansion Draft. Tristan Bowen, however, is on the senior roster and will not be exempt from the Expansion Draft. It appears as though players eventually graduate from Homegrown status through a combination of age and service time.