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Kenny Cooper and Kevin Parsemain are still on the Seattle Sounders FC roster, in some philosophical manner at least. But they are not practicing with the team, and with Parsemain at least it looks like his time with the Sounders is done.
Scary for players the way this league works, sorry to see you go Kévin Parsemain. Hope to see you playing soon bro
— Tye Mears (@TyeMears) March 18, 2015
Sigi Schmid spoke about Parsemain in specific, but it would seem his words relate to the Cooper situation as well.
Sigi Schmid's explanation on Kevin Parsemain's status. pic.twitter.com/8X302Kc9fT
— Don Ruiz (@donruiztnt) March 19, 2015
With the shifting rules for the as-yet-unapproved CBA teams were given an extension to do some things. Reading between lines this seems to apply to when a contract becomes guaranteed and when a contract can be bought out.
If the Sounders are severing their relationships with both players it leaves them with two open roster spots, space for an international player, and about 300k in additional salary budget room. There is an unknowable, but large, amount of Allocation Money available to avoid salary cap hits on things like transfer fees and/or salary. Some amount of cap space also came available under the new roster rules, but without knowing the increases for the on-cap players exactly how much of the new $3.74 million salary cap is open is a fluid number.
Seattle has flexibility; most of the league has flexibility right now. Next week, with no weekend game and a midweek friendly, the space should be a more knowable number.
It doesn't matter. There will be space. It can be used. In a bare minimum scenario Seattle needs depth on the wing (only three players are natural wide mids of some variety). Depending on your faith in Brad Evans to fix his known errors, the other need is at centerback. Or perhaps this is a situation where the Sounders look to get the best available non-forward player. With big dollars, and a transfer window that closes on May 6th, anything is possible.