WNBA: Expansion Draft Defines the Future of Portland and Toronto
The WNBA is preparing for a major milestone: the expansion draft for its new franchises in Portland and Toronto. The league announced that this crucial event will take place on April 3, marking a significant step in the expansion of professional women’s basketball.A draw will be held on Friday to determine which team will have the privilege of choosing first in the expansion draft or the sixth selection in the college draft on April 13. The team that does not get the sixth college selection will choose in seventh place.
The expansion draft rules were announced a day after the league’s board of governors ratified the new collective bargaining agreement reached last week. The expansion draft will consist of two rounds, with a maximum of six selections per team in each round. Teams will alternate selections, and the team that picks second in the first round will go first in the next round. The new teams will select from players not protected by their current WNBA clubs, with a maximum of one player per existing team being chosen. Teams have until Sunday to submit a list of five protected players. Teams can protect the players they had rights to on the last day of the 2025 regular season. Any player with five or more years of service after the 2025 season must be included on the roster as an unrestricted free agent or included on the unprotected list. Only two veteran players, Lexie Brown and Kalani Brown, had contracts that did not expire last season. Toronto and Portland will only be able to select one player who is a potential unrestricted free agent. Then, Tempo and Fire will be able to negotiate a supermax contract with those players, which could be worth up to $1.4 million annually according to the new collective bargaining agreement. This is the second consecutive year that the league is holding an expansion draft. Golden State entered the league last year and became the first expansion team to reach the playoffs.
