VANCOUVER, B.C. – The Vancouver Whitecaps find themselves in uncharted territory as they head into Thursday's MLS SuperDraft.
The 2015 draft will be Vancouver's fifth since joining Major League Soccer, but after having selections in each of the first five slots over the past four years, the Whitecaps' only first-round selection this year will be at No. 13, although head coach Carl Robinson isn't ruling out some positional movement on the day.
"We haven't got that [high pick] at the moment, unless we decide to trade up or down, which I don't know if we're going to do at the moment," Robinson told reporters. "Having a later pick in the first round, we'll let the other clubs fight for the top picks, but we want to bring someone in that can contribute in MLS with us and be a solid person."
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Places on the Whitecaps' MLS roster are already at a premium for the new season, with 22 players already signed, some other new additions expected soon and talks continuing with centerbacks Andy O'Brien and Johnny Leveron regarding new deals.
With the locker room harmony that was fostered in Vancouver last season, Robinson is keen to make sure that whoever the Whitecaps select is the right fit off the pitch as well as on it.
"We need to find good characters," Robinson said. "We've got a good group in that locker room at the moment. It's important we continue to do that because if you bring in one bad person it can affect everything and that's certainly what I won't be doing. We've done a lot of work already with regards to the Combine and we'll make our decision."
Having a later first-round pick than they are used to will provide Vancouver with its own challenges, but the perennial one still exists – do you select the best player available or do you draft to fill a need in your squad? Robinson admits it's a quandary.
"We spoke about it as a group of staff and as a club as well," Robinson said. "If it comes to our pick, and the best player available is a No. 10, we have Pedro Morales, we have Nicolas Mezquida and we have Marco Bustos. So would you pick the best player available or would you pick the next best player that you think is a player-specific player? We're still searching for the answers on that one."
Meanwhile, the Whitecaps are also leaders of the academy effort among North American clubs with their successful residency program which is starting to reap some real rewards, with seven Homegrown players on their current first-team roster and a number of other top prospects likely to see action with the Caps' new USL PRO team this season.
Despite this conveyor belt of talent, Robinson feels that the SuperDraft still has a very important role to play in building his team.
"You look for players that will help you," Robinson said. "Clubs are going down the Residency/Academy route now, which is important, but it's about having different avenues to get good players in your team to fill your roster out and the draft is certainly one of them."
Michael McColl covers the Vancouver Whitecaps for MLSsoccer.com.
