Just three days removed from their 2-1 loss to the LA Galaxy in the MLS Cup final, the New England Revolution suffered a couple more losses during Wednesday’s Expansion Draft, as forwards Patrick Mullins and Tony Taylor were both selected by New York City FC.
Mullins, who played in 24 total regular season and playoff games for the Revolution this year, was snatched up with New York City’s second selection. The 11th overall pick in last year’s SuperDraft, Mullins started 14 times for the Revs, strung together a streak of four straight matches with a goal and notched an assist in MLS Cup.
“You never really know for sure, but we thought there was a good chance Patrick might get selected,” said Revolution general manager Michael Burns. “It was a difficult decision not to protect Patrick. Unfortunately, he’s a guy that we didn’t want to lose, but understand that’s how it works.”
A two-time MAC Hermann Trophy winner at Maryland, the 22-year-old Mullins struggled to find time on the pitch late in the season, but managed to sub on in three postseason games. He came on in the 72nd minute of Sunday’s MLS Cup final, setting up Chris Tierney for a match-leveling goal just seven minutes later.
“Patrick brings a different dynamic,” said coach Jay Heaps following Sunday’s loss. “I thought Patrick did a great job of battling and doing a good job of creating a little bit of space.”
The speedy Taylor joined the Revs in mid-August after the club won a weighted lottery over Portland. He played in just one match, subbing on for the final nine minutes against Chicago on August 23.
Prior to New England the 25-year-old Taylor, taken with NYCFC’s fifth selection, had played with the US Under-20 and U-23 squads and professionally in Portugal for Estoril Praia and Atletico Clube de Portugal.
“The reality of it is, the expansion of NYCFC and Orlando City came at a bad time for the Revs,” said Burns, who confirmed to MLSsoccer.com that the Revolution did have deals in place with NYCFC and Orlando not to select unprotected player Diego Fagundez. “Good for the league, not ideal for us because we feel we had more than just 11 players that we certainly would have wanted to protect.
“But, with the Expansion Draft you can only protect so many. It was difficult for us. It’s the reality of the situation with expansion.”
