Always Protected, 2006-08

I think the most important part of this post is this link. That's a link to Wikipedia and their page on the 2006 MLS Expansion Draft, the one where Toronto was selecting players. I noticed while writing the previews for this year's draft that there was nowhere to find all the lists of protected players for the 2006 draft, as MLS just released a list of available players. I've been working on it, and I've filled in the lists of protected and exempt players. So it's nice that we now have that resource to look at, in addition to the other expansion draft articles which all already had that info. I might as well post something interesting about the current and seemingly perpetual era of expansion drafts. We've had them for three straight years now, and probably will get that streak up to at least six straight years. In the past three years, how many players have been protected in each of those drafts (not counting those exempt through Generation Adidas)? Out of a possible 132 players (2006 = 12 teams x 11 players), 58 have been protected in 2006, 2007, and 2008: Alecko Eskandarian Alejandro Moreno Ante Jazic Arturo Alvarez Atiba Harris Bobby Boswell Bouna Coundoul Brad Davis Brian Ching Brian Mullan Bryan Namoff Chad Marshall Chris Albright Chris Rolfe Chris Wingert Christian Gomez Dasan Robinson Davy Arnaud Drew Moor Dwayne De Rosario Eddie Robinson Francisco Mendoza Frankie Hejduk Gonzalo Segares Herculez Gomez Jack Jewsbury Jaime Moreno Jay Heaps Jeff Cunningham Jesse Marsch Jimmy Conrad Joe Cannon Jon Conway Jonathan Bornstein Justin Mapp Kenny Cooper Kyle Beckerman Landon Donovan Logan Pause Marcelo Saragosa Marvell Wynne Matt Reis Mehdi Ballouchy Michael Parkhurst Nick Garcia Pablo Mastroeni Ricardo Clark Sacha Kljestan Scott Sealy Seth Stammler Shalrie Joseph Shavar Thomas Steve Ralston Taylor Twellman Todd Dunivant Troy Roberts Tyrone Marshall Ugo Ihemelu How many will make it for five or six straight years? Already six have left the league in the past year, including possibly the least likely man on the list, Troy Roberts.