Draft-day deal lands Crew defensive depth

When asked on Thursday about the future considerations gained during the Major League Soccer draft, Crew coach and sporting director Gregg Berhalter sounded like the cat who swallowed the canary.

Yesterday, we found out why.

When the Crew traded its 14th overall pick to the Colorado Rapids for the 19th pick, it also acquired 24-year-old defender Chris Klute for an undisclosed amount of allocation money. The final details of the transaction were revealed last night, and now the Crew has added a player with some U.S. national team experience to further shore up its defensive depth.

“This is a player we’ve been interested in for a while,” Berhalter said. “These were discussions that have taken place over the last couple of months. In trying to plan the roster and be well-positioned at each position on the field, we thought it made sense to acquire a guy like this.”

Klute’s numbers dipped last season after a standout 2013. He attributed that to a hamstring injury suffered in the season opener, as well as the roster management by coach Pablo Mastroeni.

“The Rapids kind of had a game plan of putting players in and out” of the lineup, Klute said. “It was kind of tough getting a rhythm, but I felt I got that back toward the end of the year. It was a rough start with injuries and, being in and out of the lineup throughout the year, it was tough to get that consistency.”

Klute can play left or right back.

“This is a guy with a lot of MLS experience, still a young age, and he has been in the national team pool,” Berhalter said. “We see him as a player certainly with high potential.”