Things we expect to learn this offseason

With an extra month of offseason due to an early playoff exit, it could be tempting to tune out. There are no easily opened DP slots. The ones on the roster are either injured or more valuable here than via trade (maybe both). Plus, there's a DP-in-waiting in Jesús Ferreira.

How exciting off an offseason could it be?

You're Sounder at Heart readers so you know the status of Obed Vargas is the biggest question. The futures of Paul Rothrock and Stef Frei are the next biggest. These all feel like either losses or stability, not excitement and potential.

Even a sale of Obed likely won't result in an immediate signing.

But there's still a lot to get ready for during the long dark.

Cap space exists. Enough to add a starter and a solid rotational guy – this is without the disappearance of the three above. Plus there's speculation around losing starters on the backline via trade or sale. Maybe Moose moves too... more cap space.

In 2025 seven key players came into the org, most during the winter. That number was five in 2024. 2023 was kinda slow, with only two or three, while 2022 brought in another three.

There's reason to believe that 2026 will be on the bigger side of that, even without the availability of DP space.

Plus, the speculators can speculate about new U22s with two of those spots available (or one if you feel that's how Obed stays).

A team that won the Leagues Cup in high fashion, but had a middling regular season, will likely be making significant moves – adding 1-4 players in the starter to heavy rotational section of the build.

That's not all.

Less glamorous, but still important to the future, the Seattle Sounders have other issues to sort out.

The Future of Defiance

Who will coach Defiance? How will Defiance be restocked after losing significant top end talents so many years in a row? Can Defiance find a home that feels like home?

That continuity below percolated up to the first team so frequently that Waibel called the development system his "Fourth DP."

“Look, our fourth Designated Player is our development system,” Sounders general manager Craig Waibel told Backheeled. “That’s where we choose to spend the money because it’s working.”

Four of the top 9 most-used players in all comps came through the development system (not counting draft-to-first team). Goalscorers 5,6,7,8,9 in all comps were all developed along the Duwamish.

What's next for Defiance will mean as much to the success of 2026 as any single signing, maybe more than two signings.

What's up with the Champions Cup?

It won't be played in Lumen. The schedule is too crowded with the remodel, motocross, Sounders and Reign regular seasons with a long break for the Men's World Cup.

Where will Seattle go? Can they use the opportunity to grow the brand beyond its very urban Seattle core?

Options include, but are not limited to;

T-Mobile Park
ONE Spokane
Portland
Vancouver
Victoria, which seems to annually host Canadian teams from outside the island.

How heavy will Seattle approach the added competition? They historically try to compete. It'll be hard. There are more than 20 games on the schedule before the World Cup break. A CCC run will make that complicated, especially with the home games not being home.

But we know Schmetzer & Co. excel on the international stage.

One thing we aren't likely to get an answer to, but could have movement to follow is the new significant minority owner.

The Sounders have been incredibly stable in their ownership. The MLS sides more stable are owned by massive corporations without connections to their city. Here we've been fortunate enough to have continuity with Hanauer and Drew Carey actively growing their shares from 2009 to the present. They lost a former controlling minority owner in Joe Roth while adding the dozen+ micro-owners in the 'family.' There has yet to be a large injection of funding and attitude.

That process is now underway – it's a hundreds of millions of dollars investment. Don't expect it to happen fast. Do expect it to change the club. And if they buy more, expect bigger changes.

The days may be dark and cold. The Seattle Sounders offseason should be hot.

You can expect voting for the SaH Awards to start soon.