Well, the news is coming quickly today. Following word that Chivas USA obtained Ryan Smith in a trade from Sporting Kansas City earlier today, comes the official lists from each club for Wednesday's MLS Expansion Draft. In case you are unaware of the format, each team has to protect 11 players currently on their rosters that cannot be selected by the Montreal Impact, who are entering MLS in 2012. Montreal has ten rounds, and can select no more than one player from each team.

Take a look after the jump to see who Chivas protected, and who is eligible for selection by Montreal.

Juan Pablo Angel

Justin Braun

Jorge Flores

Dan Kennedy

Nick LaBrocca

Ryan Smith

Alejandro Moreno

Paulo Nagamura

Heath Pearce

Michael Umana

Ben Zemanski

Tristan Bowen (exempt as a Homegrown player)

Brian De la Fuente (exempt as a Homegrown player)

Chivas Players Left Unprotected (and therefore eligible for selection by Montreal):

Sergio Arias

Andrew Boyens

Chukwudi Chijindu

Chris Cortez

Laurent Courtois

Simon Elliott

Victor Estupinan

Blair Gavin

Ante Jazic

David Junior Lopes

Michael Lahoud

Gerson Mayen

Marcos Mondaini

Zach Thornton

Mariano Trujillo

Zarek Valentin

So that's the official word. I have to say, I'm kind of shocked by how these lists turned out. Comparing it to my projected list on October 29, I got barely more than half of the official selections right. Bear in mind that I knew there was some wiggle room, as I wasn't sure what the team thought about Angel moving forward, and whether Gavin and Valentin would be automatically protected under the Generation Adidas program for 2012. Both players 'graduated' from the program, but neither was protected, which is puzzling to me. Finally, I assumed Umana would be protected, but selfishly left him unprotected anyway. Given the unpredictable nature of Chivas personnel decisions, I think I deserve some leeway, but I don't know, maybe I didn't read the tea leaves right?

So the big question: What do you think of Chivas protected list? Did they make the right call? Do you think the Impact will select any of the unprotected players in the Expansion Draft? Leave a comment below!