How does the mls draft work?

Answer 1

The draft is found in pretty much every professional American sports league. The way it works is based upon the teams performance and standing in the previous season.

Therefore, teams get seeded with the worst performing team getting the highest pick, and the best performing teams are usually found more towards the bottom.

In the NBA however, the teams that don't make the playoffs have a weighted chance of getting the number one pick, but that's not how the MLS works.

Teams then draft in rounds, starting with the #1 pick and then so on. So in the MLS last year, Toronto gets the #1 pick because they're completely brand new and Houston probably got the last pick of each round because they ended up champions. The remaining teams draft in whatever order their point total fell in (i.e. the Galaxy owned usually the #5 slot, I think)

Draft picks can be traded though for other players and allocations. So for the Galaxy, you would have noticed that their first round pick (#5 over all) was traded to New England for a player allocation (part of the deal that sent Rick Dempsey to New England) and New England chose someone in that slot instead.

Hope that helps, I'm sure many more will chime in and tell you more