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The three players cut by FC Edmonton are defender Kevin Hatchi, defender Jonathan Joseph-Augustin, and goalkeeper Michal Misiewicz[1].
Hatchi's departure has been expected ever since CBC's Patrick Henri tweeted that Hatchi was on his way out for financial reasons on September 26[2]. While financial reasons may be part of it, there's no doubt that Hatchi was not among Edmonton's top performers last year despite coming in from the Montreal Impact with high expectations. The veteran Joseph-Augustin was another high-profile, and doubtless high-priced, foreign acquisition. He began the season as an automatic starter but was soon out of the lineup and played only 135 minutes in Edmonton's last nine matches.
The cutting of Misiewicz, however, was less expected. Misiewicz is only 21 years old and played 360 minutes early in the season, posting a save percentage of 0.684 compared to Lance Parker's 0.667 (and John Smits's 0.769). In addition, Misiewicz was Canada's starter at CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying and played magnificently in a losing cause, including a world-class performance against the United States that helped the Canucks to a shock 2-0 victory[3]. While his season-opening run as FC Edmonton's starter was cut short by his being hurt while others returned from injury, Misiewicz also looked fine at the NASL level: not brilliant, and his final game against the Minnesota Stars was very rough, but as good as anyone could expect a 21-year-old with limited professional experience to look.
While Edmonton was carrying four keepers and a cut seemed likely, I would have predicted that David Monsalve, an older player who has fought injury and not looked brilliant when healthy, would be the one to be cut if anyone was. It also seemed possible that Lance Parker might move on to another town. Misiewicz was the youngest goalkeeper on the Edmonton roster and, while you can argue over whether he or John Smits was the more promising, Misiewicz did look like a good player to keep around if only to learn the ropes with Reserves action. 21 years old is very young for a goalkeeper.
Hopefully, for his sake and Canada's, Misiewicz can catch on somewhere. But it really seemed like Edmonton was a good fit.
[1] — Morse, Andreas. "Off-season moves continue at FC Edmonton." FCEdmonton.com, October 2, 2012. Accessed October 2, 2012. http://www.fcedmonton.com/news/2012-10-02/Off-season%20Moves%20Continue%20at%20FC%20Edmonton.
[2] — Henri, Patrick. "Kévin Hatchi ne sera pas de retour avec le FC Edmonton. Il a confirmé avoir été libéré par l'équipe pour raisons budgétaires. #FCED #NASL." Via Twitter. September 26, 2012. Accessed October 2, 2012. https://twitter.com/pathenri/status/251038198715801600.
[3] — Canadian Soccer Association. "Match Highlights: Canada M23 2 - 0 USA." Via YouTube. March 24, 2012. Accessed October 2, 2012. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr3wbqODCis.