Breakers exercise contract options on 13 players, offer new contracts to two

It’s NWSL waiver deadline day, which means all the clubs are releasing lists of who they’re keeping on and who they’ve released.

The Boston Breakers have exercised contract options on 13 players and offered new contracts to two; it’s typical NWSL club policy to sign players on a one-year contract with an option to renew for a second.

The 13 players Boston has renewed options on are, by position:

Goalkeepers: Abby Smith, Libby Stout

Defenders: Brooke Elby, Kassey Kallman, Kylie Strom, Christen Westphal

Midfielders: Kristie Mewis, Angela Salem, Louise Schillgard

Forwards: Natasha Dowie, Elise Krieghoff, Brittany Ratcliffe, Kyah Simon

The Breakers have also offered new contracts to defender Julie King and midfielder Stephanie Verdoia.

Per their press release, they are “in discussions” with defender Whitney Engen. Engen recently lost her national team allocated status when Jill Ellis released her from the WNT, meaning US Soccer will no longer pay her salary. Engen must now negotiate her own contract with any club she wishes to play for.

The Breakers have declined to bring back the following players:

Goalkeepers: Jami Kranich

Defenders: Rachel Wood

Midfielders: Katie Schoepfer, Sinead Farrelly, Ghoutia Karchouni

Forwards: Eunice Beckmann

Farrelly was supposed to have been part of the revitalized Breakers midfield as part of a pairing with McCall Zerboni, but due to an injury sustained before preseason, was never able to start with Boston. Kranich was also expected to be dropped as she was an emergency signing after Abby Smith’s freak non-contact knee injury took her out of the season in only her second game.

The dropping of Karchouni and Beckmann also opens up those two international slots for Beard, who has indicated in the past that he will probably be filling them with players rather than trading them.

All Breakers players have been placed on the NWSL re-entry wire; other teams will have until Thursday, October 20 at 1 PM ET to claim the rights to a player off this list.

Re-Entry Wire:

Eunice Beckman, Boston Breakers
Ellie Brush, Houston Dash
Janice Cayman, WNY Flash
Michelle Cruz, Seattle Reign
Laura Del Rio, Washington Spirit
Sinead Farrelly, Boston Breakers
Ghoutia Karchouni, Boston Breakers
Jami Kranich, Boston Breakers
Molly Menchel, FC Kansas City
Kaitlyn Savage, Orlando Pride
Katie Schoepfer, Boston Breakers
Jennifer Skogerboe, Portland Thorns
Rachel Wood, Boston Breakers

Boston will look to the college draft, internationals, and perhaps some trades with other clubs to fill in the remaining five (perhaps four, depending on the Engen negotiations) slots on their roster. The college draft will be in January at the NSCAA convention in Los Angeles.