The WNBA has announced that an expansion draft for the new teams in Portland and Toronto will take place on April 3. A coin toss is scheduled for Friday to determine which team will have the first pick in the expansion draft or the sixth pick in the upcoming college draft on April 13. The team not selecting sixth in the college draft will pick seventh.
The rules for the expansion draft were revealed following the approval of the new collective bargaining agreement by the league’s Board of Governors last week. The draft will consist of two rounds with each team having the opportunity to make up to six picks in each round. The selection order will alternate between teams, with the team picking second in the first round picking first in the subsequent round.
The new teams will select players left unprotected by their current WNBA teams, with a limit of one player per existing team being chosen. Current teams have until Sunday to submit a list of five protected players, including those they had rights to at the end of the 2025 regular season.
Players with five or more years of service post the 2025 season must be listed as unrestricted free agents or added to the unprotected list. Toronto and Portland can each pick one potential unrestricted free agent player. These players could be offered a supermax contract worth up to $1.4 million annually under the new CBA.
This marks the second consecutive year the league has held an expansion draft. The Golden State team entered the league last year and notably became the first expansion team to reach the playoffs.