During the 2022 MLS SuperDraft in January, the Crew entered the day knowing they needed to fill out the roster of their brand-new MLS Next Pro team and drafted with an eye on acquiring players who could step into Crew 2 and contribute.
Eleven months later, in Wednesday's SuperDraft — technically considered the 2023 edition — they took a slightly different approach. With well-stocked starting rosters for both the Crew and Crew 2, which won the inaugural MLS Next Pro Cup and a slew of league awards, Crew assistant general manager Corey Wray led the draft process with a focus on upside.
With the No. 14 pick in the first round, the Crew selected forward Maximilian Arfsten from San Jose Earthquakes II. They traded $50,000 in general allocation money to Houston for the No. 27 overall pick, which they used on Dayton defender Xavier Zengue, and rounded out the draft with midfielder Clay Holstad from Kentucky at No. 43.
"Certainly, with our first pick, we're looking for him to compete for a first team spot," Wray said. "We'd love the other two guys to be there as well. But we started to really focus in on ceiling and high-end ability, but also knowing that we have a really good development system in place with a (Crew 2) team that's very strong that we could put (Zengue and Holstad) around those guys and we could see them really flourish. ... We definitely went off the most talented and the biggest upside for this year."
Arfsten's selection rose eyebrows as many wondered how the Crew were able to draft a player who is already on a professional contract within the MLS structure. But because Arfsten signed with Earthquakes II after just two years of college, thus leaving college early, Wray explained that Arfsten was then eligible for this year's draft.
"On the year where he should've been entering the draft, this is where he should've been on the list," Wray said. "... From there, the league then provides us with guidelines with any of these players, that we are obviously allowed to bring him into training camp with the view of signing him for the first team. Therefore, he would be our player and the contract he's on would no longer be valid.
Arfsten scored nine goals and tallied six assists in 24 appearances with Earthquakes II in his first professional season. Prior to turning professional, he played two seasons at UC Davis and was the Big West's offensive player of the year in 2021 after scoring eight goals with seven assists in 20 games.
For Wray and the Crew's scouting staff, Arfsten's production at the professional level made him an obvious selection with the No. 14 pick.
"We're on a massive list of collegiate players and we have a player who scored nine goals, contributed to a number of goals for his team, very attack-minded, exciting one-on-one, and he's done it in a pro environment, which, in our minds, is really, really exciting for us when you're looking at first team potential," Wray said. "We felt really good about that when he stacked up against everyone else. If you follow the process and go through our list, it was pretty much a no-brainer."
After Arfsten's selection, the Crew traded up for a second first-round pick for the second year in a row, and for the second year in a row they used that pick on a center back. Zengue's profile at 6-0 is a bit different from last year's selection Philip Quinton's 6-6 stature, but Wray views him as a unique player with a high ceiling.
"An exciting player in terms of what he can bring as a center back," Wray said. "Maybe you don't want an exciting player as a center back, but that certainly suits the way the second team has played and could be an interesting option on the first team. We see some really big upside and year-over-year improvement in him."
Upside is also what drew the Crew to Holstad, who played five seasons at Kentucky and found his game as a fifth-year senior. He started all 21 games and played 1,681 total minutes, scoring one goal and adding four assists.
Though Holstad was a bit of a late bloomer in college, Wray sees the potential in his game and expects both Holstad and Zengue to contribute for Crew 2, and, ideally, for the first team down the line.
"What we really liked was some of (Holstad's) progressive passes and the way that he would look to play forward when he did recover the ball," Wray said. "I think that's very interesting. Sometimes, you don't have both. You have maybe a defensive-minded guy who gets it and gives it, but we like some of the risks he takes on the ball. Most important, a really solid kid who has put in the work and deserves an opportunity."
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus Crew pick Arfsten, Zengue and Holstad in 2023 MLS SuperDraft
