2026 WNBA expansion draft

The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) will hold their seventh expansion draft on April 3, 2026, for the Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo presented by State Street Investment Management. This draft will allow the Fire and Tempo to select players from almost all the existing WNBA teams to fill their rosters before the start of the 2026 WNBA season.

On March 25, 2026, the WNBA announced the expansion draft would be held on April 3 and televised on ESPN, and also announced the draft rules.

On March 27, a coin toss was held to determine which expansion team would pick first in this expansion draft. Portland won the coin toss and got the first overall pick in the expansion draft; Toronto claimed the sixth overall selection in the 2026 WNBA draft. The Fire received the seventh pick in the regular draft; the Tempo will draft second in the first round of expansion and first in the second round. Each existing WNBA team will provide the league office with a list of all players to which it held contract rights as of the final day of the 2025 regular season. On April 1, Portland and Toronto agreed to exclude Chicago's unprotected players from selection in exchange for the Sky's second-round regular draft picks, with Chicago acquiring the Fire's own second-round pick. Hence, the other 12 teams were allowed to protect a maximum of five players from these lists.

Rules

The expansion draft will consist of two rounds in snake draft format.

• The Fire and the Tempo will be permitted to select one unprotected player from each of the other 12 existing teams' 2025 rosters, with Chicago exempted
• For players who are selected by an expansion but not under contract for the 2026 season, the expansion team "will receive whatever rights to such player that the existing team would have had if that player was not selected."

• Players with completed service from prior contracts and 5+ years of service in the league will be designated as "potential unrestricted free agents"
• Each expansion team is permitted to select only one potential unrestricted free agent in this draft

• The following deals are permitted to be made by the expansion teams:
• Agree to select a player from an unprotected list and trade that player to a team other than her existing team
• Agree to select or not select a player from team's unprotected list; Portland and Toronto exercised this with their non-selection from the Sky's list

Key

Expansion draft

The following players will be drafted for the rosters of the Fire and Tempo from the league's existing teams on April 3, 2026:

First round

Second round

Notes

References