The North Carolina Courage announced the 11 players it is protecting on Nov. 5 ahead of the upcoming NWSL expansion draft. 

The list includes both U.S. Allocated players, with Abby Dahlkemper and the rights to Sam Mewis (currently playing with Manchester City) being protected by the Courage. Joining the two USWNT regulars on the protected list are new goalkeeper Casey Murphy, who the Courage just acquired in a three-team trade involving Crystal Dunn, and Hailie Mace, who the Courage acquired the rights to via trade in January. 

Alongside the newest additions to the team and the two U.S. Allocated players, the Courage opted to further protect its core group, adding Debinha, Abby Erceg, Merritt Mathias, Kristen Hamilton, Jessica McDonald, Lynn Williams and Denise O’Sullivan (currently on loan with Brighton & Hove Albion) to the list.

The reasoning behind the Courage’s choices seems pretty clear: Protect the core that has already won so much. Making three consecutive championships and winning the last two with this core group, which has played a total of over 600 games for the Courage, is fantastic, and if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

While the reasoning behind the Courage’s choices might be clear, there are still plenty of solid players from the Courage’s unprotected list that could get picked up by Racing Louisville FC on Nov. 12.

The full unprotected list for the Courage and the rest of the league can be found here, but the names the Courage are most at risk of losing are Addisyn Merrick, Lauren Milliet and Steph Labbe. 

Merrick, the Courage’s fourth-round selection in this year’s college draft, was excellent in both the Challenge Cup, as a right back, and the Fall Series, playing as a center back in a three-back system.

Courage head coach Paul Riley spoke incredibly highly about the former Kansas Jayhawk throughout both competitions, but her inclusion on the unprotected list isn’t exactly a shock. She is good and definitely has a lot of potential, but the Courage has a deep defense (even with left back Jaelene Daniels announcing her retirement this week). 

Erceg, Dahlkemper and Mathias (who is coming back from an ACL tear) are all on the Courage’s protected list and occupy the positions that Merrick played during 2020. Could she possibly play on the left side and take up Daniel’s now vacant position? Sure. But it is an understandable risk the Courage is taking here, and if Merrick isn’t able to play on the left, she would be stuck on the bench behind those three protected players when they are healthy. 

I would not have been shocked if Milliet had made her way onto the Courage’s protected list, but I am also not shocked that she is not there. Like Merrick, Milliet is someone that Riley has spoken incredibly highly about in 2020, but also like Merrick, she probably does not get into a full-strength Courage starting XI yet. 

With Dunn departing as a part of the trade that brought Murphy to the Courage, Milliet’s path into the starting XI got a little easier, but with the Courage’s choice to protect Mace, she probably still does not get into a full-strength XI yet. If she does not get picked up by Louisville though, I’m sure Riley would love to have her as an option off the bench next season.

Labbe is probably the most interesting of the three players I’ve mentioned because of the other goalkeepers available. There are two U.S. Allocated goalkeepers, Ashlyn Harris (Orlando) and Adrianna Franch (Portland), available as well as some other very good keepers like Britt Eckerstrom (Portland), who’s stunning performance helped knock the Courage out of the Challenge Cup.

While Labbe is not the best keeper available from the unprotected lists, her not being a U.S. Allocated player makes her more likely to be picked ahead of Harris or Franch since Louisville has 150,000 reasons to not select any U.S. Allocated players. The NWSL newcomers are able to pick a maximum of two U.S. Allocated players in the expansion draft, but if they pick none, they receive $150,000 of allocation money, and if they only pick one, they get $75,000.

With the addition of Murphy, and her inclusion on the protected list, the Courage would likely be fine with Labbe being picked if it means getting to keep more of its young players.

There are some other names on the Courage’s unprotected list that would not be a surprise to hear called on Nov. 12. As mentioned before, the full list of the league’s protected and unprotected players can be found here.

The Courage will likely lose two players with Racing Louisville able to select a maximum of two players, or one U.S. Allocated player (which the Courage have none of on its unprotected list), from each of the NWSL teams. Who is picked from the Courage will largely depend on what else Louisville decided to go for from other teams, with some teams leaving U.S. Allocated players unprotected. 

The expansion draft is set for 7 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 12 and will be streamed exclusively on the NWSL’s Twitch channel.