MLS Draft 2012: Andrew Wegner, Darren Mattocks Expected To Be Top Picks

For the fourth straight year, a product of Akron is expected to be among the top 5 picks in the MLS SuperDraft. This year, that player is expected to Darren Mattocks, a forward who scored 39 goals during two seasons with the Zips. Just about every mock draft out there (here's SB Nation's) has projected Mattocks to go within the top two, with Hermann Trophy winner Andrew Wegner his main competition for the top spot. It will qualify as a colossal upset if one of those two players' names aren't called by Commissioner Don Garber when the draft starts at Noon Eastern on Thursday (airing live on ESPN and online at ESPN3.com).

Who will be taking those players could end up being a bigger mystery. The scuttlebutt (don't you love that word?) is that lots of teams are talking trades and there could be a flurry of activity both before and during the draft that makes it even harder to predict.

For now, here is the draft order:

First Round

1. Montreal Impact
2. Vancouver Whitecaps
3. New England Revolution
4. Toronto FC
5. Chivas USA
6. San Jose Earthquakes
7. D.C. United
8. Portland Timbers
9. Chicago Fire
10. Columbus Crew
11. FC Dallas
12. Toronto FC
13. Philadelphia Union
14. Colorado Rapids
15. Seattle Sounders
16. Sporting Kansas City
17. Real Salt Lake
18. Houston Dynamo
19. LA Galaxy

Second Round

1. Impact
2. Whitecaps
3. Revolution
4. Fire
5. RSL
6. Earthquakes
7. Crew
8. Timbers
9. Fire
10. Crew
11. Sporting KC
12. New York Red Bulls
13. Union
14. Earthquakes
15. Sounders
16. Union
17. RSL
18. Dynamo
19. Galaxy

SB Nation Soccer will have live pick-by-pick coverage of the draft. Be sure to follow this StoryStream for all the latest updates.