The WNBA announced the rules that will govern the 2026 Expansion Draft and that it will be held on Friday, April 3. Coverage will be provided by ESPN beginning at 3:30 pm ET. This will be the key mechanism for the incoming Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo to assemble their respective rosters.

A coin toss will be conducted on Friday, March 27, to decide who picks first in the expansion and college drafts. The winner of the toss between Portland and Toronto will have the right to choose between receiving the first selection in the Expansion Draft or the sixth pick in the first round of the college draft. If they choose the first pick in the Expansion Draft, they pick seventh in the college draft on Monday, April 13. If they choose to pick sixth in the college draft, they go second in the Expansion Draft.

In preparation for the Expansion Draft, each of the existing 13 teams must submit to the league office a list of every player to whom the team has the rights by Sunday, March 29. The lists will include players on the team’s active, suspended, drafted, reserved, core and retired lists as of the final day of the 2025 regular season. Any player who has completed the services called for by their previous contract and has five or more years of service as of the end of the 2025 season must be designated as a “Potential Unrestricted Free Agent.”

From those lists, each team can designate a maximum of five players to be protected and thus not available for selection in the Expansion Draft. All other players on each team’s roster list will be eligible for selection as unprotected players. 

 

The Expansion Draft will consist of two rounds. In each round, Portland and Toronto will alternate selections and be able to acquire the player contract of, or the negotiating rights to, one unprotected player from each of the 13 teams. The Fire and Tempo will “snake” picks so that the team that picks first in the first round will pick second in the second round.

If a player is selected who is not signed to a contract for the 2026 season, the selecting team will receive whatever rights to such player that the existing team would have had if that player were not selected in the Expansion Draft.

Each expansion team may select just one “Potential Unrestricted Free Agent.” They can be selected even if they can no longer be designated as a Core Player (due to already playing two or more years under the Core designation), allowing the selecting team to be the only team that can negotiate a supermax contract with the player.

Additionally, after the roster lists are submitted and before a designated time on the day before the Expansion Draft, Portland and Toronto can make trades with existing teams. These trades can be an agreement to select a particular unprotected player and trade them to a team other than their existing team and/or an agreement to select (or not select) a particular player from the team they are trading with.

Test out this year’s rules and conduct an expansion draft yourself with our WNBA Mock Expansion Draft tool.