After being chosen with the 34th pick in the 2013 MLS Superdraft, Dylan Tucker-Gangnes, "DTG", arrived with very little buzz, another former U-23 player in the glorious vein of Jake Gleeson, Freddie Braun, Ryan Kawulok, and Brent Richards.
2012 Rank: N/A
2013
Rank | Average | Stacey | Ryan | Will | Michael |
30 | 30 | 30 | 29 | 31 | 30 |
After a surprising preseason in which Tucker-Gangnes played a significant number of minutes looking calm and composed alongside Hanyer Mosquera, Futty Danso, and Andrew Jean-Baptiste, he faded from view. Even during the Timbers' remarkable centerback crisis this season, when David Horst, Mikael Silvestre, and Futty Danso were all struggling with injuries, Tucker-Gangnes could not crack the starting line-up, despite making the bench for the first four games of the season.
The season was cut short for Tucker-Gangnes, however, after an unfortunate blow to the head in training put him on the sidelines with a concussion in June and kept him there for the rest of the season. The concussion's after-effects were still with him at the end of the season, according to Caleb Porter.
2014
Potential Rank | Average | Stacey | Ryan | Will | Michael |
31 | 30 | 31 | 30 | 31 | 28 |
The concussion that ended DTG's 2013 campaign is still a very real concern and could keep him out for a large stretch of 2014 as well. A severe enough concussion could even give him cause to take an early retirement, as (the better) Eddie Johnson did last season.
On the Timbers' end, there is little downside to keeping DTG on the team. He is on the league minimum salary and would not occupy one of the team's precious senior roster slots, so there is really no reason for the Timbers to cut him, before the preseason. Hopefully Tucker-Gangnes will be recovered by the time the season comes around, but if not he may need to step away from the game.