We’re now into the thick of the Major League Soccer offseason. Players are changing places, coaches are getting hired, contract negotiations are happening, and MLS rosters are getting built in earnest with the start of a new season rapidly approaching.
New York City FC made their roster decisions shortly after their Eastern Conference Final elimination and revealed their pick for new Sporting Director, but on the personnel side, there’s been nary a transfer-related peep from the team beyond that.
No transactions and no real substantive incoming transfer rumors to speak of, with the club choosing stasis in December rather than a flurry of end-of-2025 activity, a familiar choice that the club made often during David Lee’s years running soccer operations.
The club tempered expectations for an immediate Dunivant-led roster overhaul, pointing out in their hiring announcement that the new Sporting Director won’t officially be in office until January 1, 2026. Even if the new top soccer boss is weeks away from his official first day, it’s naive to think he’s not orchestrating what the team does or doesn’t do in this still-early, but increasingly active, portion of the offseason.
Big free-agent players from across the league are already coming off the board and the 2026 MLS SuperDraft is up next, scheduled to take place on Thursday, December 18 at 2 pm Eastern. While it’s been quiet for New York City FC, it can’t stay that way for long, given that they have at least four picks to make in the SuperDraft, pending any trades.
Thursday’s SuperDraft is just one critical date out of many that remain on the offseason calendar as it stretches from now through to the first match of the 2026 season on the road against LA Galaxy on Saturday, February 22.
Let’s review the rest of the big dates and potentially significant landmarks you need to be aware of as we collectively navigate these short few months waiting to see what team-building moves NYCFC might have in store.
Wednesday, December 10: MLS Free Agency opens
Roster decisions all came through once the 2025 season ended, New York City FC’s included, with the team declining a few contract options, most notably on Andrés Perea. Maxi Moralez and Justin Haak are also both out of contract and free to sign with any team as outright Free Agents.
Last Wednesday officially opened the market for out-of-contract MLS players like Perea, Moralez, and Haak to sign where they please. Already there are reports that Haak won’t be returning to New York City, not surprising given other earlier reports claiming lots of other teams in MLS and in England, Germany, and Scotland hold interest in the 24-year-old from Brooklyn.
Many deals have already been struck by other teams during this early portion of the offseason, and they haven’t just been free agent signings. While Nashville SC’s captain and Designated Player Walker Zimmerman is set to join Toronto FC, and Josef Martínez is leaving the league to sign with Club Tijuana in Liga MX, there have also been major trades, with Philadelphia Union shipping out both defender Jakob Glesnes (to LA Galaxy) and striker Tai Baribo (to DC United).
There’s a long list of MLS players eligible to sign wherever in free agency, which you can scroll through here, but so far, it’s been extremely quiet on the New York City front, save for the transfer saga unfolding around Justin Haak and his next team.
Thursday, December 11: End-of-Year Waivers
New York City didn’t claim anyone, with only one player changing teams through the MLS waivers mechanism — Seattle Sounders FC picked up goalkeeper Max Anchor, the 21-year-old owner of an extremely Pacific Northwest name who’d fittingly been with Seattle’s Cascadia Cup rivals Vancouver Whitecaps FC.
Wednesday, December 17: Re-Entry Process concludes
Re-Entry is your classic only-in-MLS roster mechanism that lets teams pick up players who are, by the league’s own definition, “at least 22 years old and have a minimum of one year of MLS service who are out of contract and did not receive a Bona Fide Offer or whose contract options were not exercised by their clubs.” Meaning, these guys were let go by their clubs but haven’t been in MLS long enough to qualify to become outright Free Agents.
The Re-Entry Draft, if you can call it that, occurs in two phases, the Phase 1 portion having wrapped up on December 11 with all 30 teams passing on the opportunity to select a player. Phase 2 is scheduled for Wednesday, December 17, with a list of eligible players released first and then final moves, if any, finalized by 5 pm Eastern. Hard to expect much action here, from any team, much less from NYCFC.
Thursday, December 18: 2026 MLS SuperDraft
New York City FC holds four picks in the 2026 SuperDraft, as follows:
Round 1, 27th pick
Round 2, 57th pick
Round 3, 71st pick (from San Jose/Alfredo Morales trade)
Round 3, 87th pick
Since performance in the MLS Cup Playoffs is taken into account when arranging the draft order, New York City are right near the bottom of the list of pickers. They hold the natural 27th selection in each round, and they gain an extra Third Round pick from the trade that sent Alfredo Morales to San Jose Earthquakes in January 2024 – the Quakes pick is the 11th selection in Round 3, the 71st overall.
Central defender Max Murray and left-back Nico Cavallo were two of NYCFC’s five selections in the 2025 SuperDraft and remain with the MLS squad heading into the 2026 season. While picking late, it’s still possible the club could extract a talented contributor at the MLS or MLS Next Pro level, as they’ve done with recent selections like Taylor Calheira, MD Myers, and Kevin O’Toole. Calheira and Myers were both selected with the 66th overall pick, while O’Toole was 34th overall.
There are 436 players officially eligible for 2026 SuperDraft selection, a list you can browse here. If you really want to know who’s good coming out of college, Paul Harvey of American Soccer Analysis/The Outfield also built this SuperDraft scouting dashboard to identify some of the most promising prospects.
Oliver Strand
Thursday, January 1, 2026: Transfer windows open elsewhere
MLS operates on its own timeline for transfers, at least for now while the league still plays out its last full season following the traditional schedule and competition format, before it all changes in 2027.
While MLS is unique, much of the rest of the soccer world starts to do its serious winter player movement beginning on Thursday, January 1, or Friday, January 2, 2026.
Last year, MLS’s Primary Transfer Window didn’t open until January 31st and remained open until April 23, significant since MLS rules stipulate that, “While deals may be agreed upon outside the windows, the transfer and receipt of an ITC [International Transfer Certificate] are required to officially add a player to a roster, thus making them eligible for official competitions.”
While we’re here in December wondering where the New York City FC moves are, that might change once we get into the new year and the rest of the world’s player markets heat up, especially if the team is focused on adding players from overseas. Traditionally, New York City’s front office tends to be active in the weeks around when its players first report back to begin preseason preparations, so the New Year could bring with it some new faces linked with NYCFC.
Hudson River Blue Staff
Mid-January 2026: New York City FC players report for preseason
Last year, NYCFC’s player report date was Monday, January 13. If they’re trying to keep it consistent, maybe this year, the first team return date will be Monday, January 12? That’s a guess, because we haven’t confirmed that with the team as of press time, but that’s the precedent set before the 2025 season. Expect to see footage flooding your social media channels of players strolling through parking lots and shaking hands and getting ready to get back to work.
Saturday, February 7 to Saturday, February 14, 2026: Coachella Valley Invitational in Indio, CA
There might be one or two other preseason matches played before the Coachella Valley Invitational, but the annual non-tournament group of friendly matches at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California will again make up the bulk of NYCFC’s preseason prep work.
The club will play three matches in 2026, down from four in 2025. New York City will face LAFC, San Jose Earthquakes, and Sporting Kansas City. The other MLS clubs participating in this year’s Coachella Valley Invitational are: Austin FC, Charlotte FC, Chicago Fire FC, Minnesota United FC, Portland Timbers FC, San Diego FC, and St. Louis City SC.
New York City FC Schedule
• New York City vs LAFC
Sun, February 8, 3 pm ET
• New York City vs Sporting Kansas City
Wed, February 11, 4:30 pm ET
• New York City vs San Jose Earthquakes
Sat, February 14, 4 pm ET
Hudson River Blue Staff
Late-April 2026: MLS Primary Transfer Window closes
We’ve been primarily focused on the roster-building dates of note still in front of New York City FC, so this is the last big one, even if NYCFC will have played approximately 9-10 regular-season matches by the time this last date rolls around.
The first of two MLS transfer windows of the 2026 season, the Primary Transfer Window, should slam shut sometime in late-April, though the league has yet to finalize the dates of both its Primary and Secondary Transfer Windows in 2026.
In 2025, the Primary Transfer Window shut on April 23, 2025 – right around the time that NYCFC finalized and announced the signing of midfielder Aiden O’Neill, the one big “offseason” addition made to the 2025 roster which came well into their regular season.
Whatever the date ends up being in 2026, the Primary window closing will represent the first “pencils down” moment of next season for NYCFC’s roster-building, and we’re assuming between now and then, plenty of moves will get made, regardless of the quiet state of things around the club in mid-December.
Hudson River Blue Staff
