Tuesday’s biggest news was the official signing of goalkeeper Eric Dick, who the Loons thought highly enough of that they spent a Re-Entry Draft pick on him in order to grab his negotiating rights.

Dick is 27, and has mostly been a USL backup for four years, though he did play one (sadly disastrous) game for Sporting KC in 2019. At 6’5”, size may be his greatest asset; he was an All-American at Butler in 2017, and was SKC’s first-round draft pick that offseason, but since then he’s only managed to grab 30 starts across four seasons on loan in the USL.

All in all, he’s got the classic third-keeper makeup. In fact, he could be a double for the Loons’ 2021 third keeper, Adrian Zendejas, who was also mostly a USL backup (for six years), and also played one game for Sporting KC in 2019.

For the moment, he is a bit between a rock and a hard place. The Loons have two experienced goalkeepers in front of him, in Tyler Miller and Dayne St. Clair. They also have a homegrown keeper, Fred Emmings, who is desperately in need of game time, and who you would have to think is going to get most of the games in goal for MNUFC2 this season.

Which would leave Dick to set out cones and generally be a good teammate and work hard in training.

But. But. MNUFC play-by-play guy Callum Williams, who’s pretty plugged in to all things Loons, has said repeatedly that he expects either Miller or St. Clair to leave before this season begins. St. Clair is signed for at least three more years plus a team option, Miller for just one more plus a team option. Miller is 28, St. Clair is 24.

So who will it be? Miller was first-choice in 2020, then got hurt, and St. Clair came in and saved the Loons’ bacon down the stretch, nearly pushing them all the way to MLS Cup. That earned him the starting spot come 2021, but when the team face-planted out of the starting gate, losing four in a row and giving up ten goals, St. Clair took the fall. Miller never relinquished his spot, starting the next 30 games.

Of course, then Miller got Covid and missed the playoff game, and St. Clair came in and gave up three more goals, giving him the ugly stat line of 13 goals allowed in five games.

And so the Loons have two keepers who are, potentially, their first-choice keeper. Unless you assume that one is going to get hurt - or that you need to hold onto a scapegoat for another face-plant - that’s too many first-choice keepers.

Which is why you could potentially expect one of them to depart. And if that happens, then Eric Dick is one strained hip flexor away from being the man for MNUFC.

You hope that the Loons have the scouting right on this one, because suddenly this signing seems a lot more important than just a keeper-depth kind of thing.

Jerry Zgoda with the Star Tribune has your training report from Tuesday. Near as I can tell, it boils down to “if a player occupies an international slot on the roster, for one reason or another, he is not yet in training.”