MLS: Fewest Returning Players

Which MLS teams have had the fewest number of players returning from the previous season? I counted only those players which received playing time in a regular season game during both seasons. Of the 132 two-season spans we can look at, the average is exactly 14 players returning. Only seven times has a team returned fewer than 10 players. Let's take a look at those teams: PPG Diff 7 NY 2002-2003 0.15 8 CHV 2005-2006 0.78 9 CLB 2005-2006 -0.16 9 COL 1996-1997 0.25 9 NE 1997-1998 -0.25 9 NY 2005-2006 -0.25 9 SJ 1998-1999 0.06 What do these teams have in common? New coaches. Everyone of these teams had more than one coach in those two years, even if it was just at the end of the second season like NE/SJ. Also the fact that a couple of the teams were pretty horrible. Bob Bradley's not shy about remaking a team, as you can see by the top two being teams that he joined. The record holding 2002-03 Metrostars used only the following players in both years: Addo, Joe Grafer, Paul Howard, Tim Jolley, Steve Lisi, Mark Mathis, Clint Ziadie, Craig To give you an idea of how hard this record will be to match, the Galaxy have been perhaps the most active (non-expansion) team this offseason in moving players around. But among their 33 man preseason roster still remains 19 of the 28 men who saw action during the 2008 season. Barring more trades, for them to join this list you would have to have Ricketts start every match in goal, Beckham and Donovan not returning, several of the mediocre guys cut, and maybe a season ending injury or two. The most players returned record is shared by DC and LA in 2005-06, with 20. Dallas from that same time period is right behind with 19. Of course, that was year after the league expanded the roster to 28. Returning Players: All Teams CHI CHV CLB COL DAL DC HOU KC LA MIA NE NY RSL SJ TB TOR 1996-1997 xxx xxx 15 9 11 18 xxx 10 15 xxx 12 14 xxx 13 15 xxx 1997-1998 xxx xxx 14 13 18 15 xxx 15 17 xxx 9 14 xxx 12 13 xxx 1998-1999 17 xxx 17 12 16 18 xxx 14 17 13 15 13 xxx 9 15 xxx 1999-2000 14 xxx 14 11 17 18 xxx 12 18 17 13 13 xxx 13 14 xxx 2000-2001 16 xxx 14 12 13 13 xxx 14 15 12 15 15 xxx 10 13 xxx 2001-2002 17 xxx 14 12 12 12 xxx 12 14 xxx 11 10 xxx 15 xxx xxx 2002-2003 14 xxx 16 14 16 11 xxx 16 15 xxx 12 7 xxx 12 xxx xxx 2003-2004 17 xxx 12 13 12 13 xxx 16 16 xxx 14 12 xxx 17 xxx xxx 2004-2005 11 xxx 15 10 13 17 xxx 16 12 xxx 13 12 xxx 10 xxx xxx 2005-2006 18 8 9 15 19 20 xxx 16 20 xxx 17 9 10 xxx xxx xxx 2006-2007 18 13 16 12 17 15 17 15 15 xxx 13 15 15 xxx xxx xxx 2007-2008 16 14 18 15 18 10 15 15 13 xxx 14 15 13 xxx xxx 13 Doing "percentage of minutes returning" would be another interesting thing to look at.