2026 WNBA expansion draft
7th WNBA expansion draft
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The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) held its seventh expansion draft on April 3, 2026, for the Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo presented by State Street Investment Management.[1] This draft allowed 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.[2]
| 2026 WNBA expansion draft | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Sport | Basketball |
| Date | April 3, 2026 |
| Network | ESPN |
| Overview | |
| League | WNBA |
| Expansion teams | Portland Fire Toronto Tempo |
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.[3]
On March 27, a coin toss was held to determine which expansion team would pick first in this expansion draft. Toronto won the coin toss, but instead decided to claim the sixth overall selection in the 2026 WNBA draft. This gave Portland the first overall pick in the expansion draft.[4] The Fire received the seventh pick in the regular draft; the Tempo drafted second in the first round of expansion and first in the second round.[5] Each existing WNBA team provided 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.[3] On April 1, Portland and Toronto agreed not to draft the Chicago Sky's unprotected players in exchange for the Sky's second-round regular draft picks, with Chicago acquiring the Fire's own second-round pick.[6] Hence, the other 12 teams were allowed to protect a maximum of five players from these lists.[3]
Rules
The expansion draft consisted of two rounds in snake draft format.[3]
- The Fire and the Tempo were permitted to select one unprotected player from each of the other 12 existing teams' 2025 rosters.
- For players who were selected by an expansion but not under contract for the 2026 season, the expansion team would "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 were designated as "potential unrestricted free agents"
- Each expansion team was permitted to select only one potential unrestricted free agent in this draft
- The following deals were 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 Chicago's list
Expansion draft
Key
| Pos. | G | F | C |
| Position | Guard | Forward | Center |
The following players were drafted for the rosters of the Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo from the league's existing teams on April 3, 2026:
Prior to the expansion draft, the Chicago Sky traded draft picks to both expansion teams in exchange for protection during this draft.[7]
First round
| Pick | Player | Position | Nationality | New team | Former team | WNBA years[a] | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bridget Carleton | F |  Canada |
Portland Fire | Minnesota Lynx | 6 | [8] |
| 2 | Julie Allemand | G |  Belgium |
Toronto Tempo | Los Angeles Sparks | 2 | |
| 3 | Carla Leite |  France |
Portland Fire | Golden State Valkyries | 1 | ||
| 4 | Nyara Sabally | C |  Germany |
Toronto Tempo | New York Liberty | 2 | |
| 5 | Luisa Geiselsöder | Portland Fire | Dallas Wings | 1 | |||
| 6 | Marina Mabrey | G |  United States |
Toronto Tempo | Connecticut Sun | 6 | |
| 7 | Emily Engstler | F | Portland Fire | Washington Mystics | 3 | ||
| 8 | Aaliyah Nye | G | Toronto Tempo | Las Vegas Aces | 1 | ||
| 9 | Maya Caldwell | Portland Fire | Atlanta Dream | 3 | |||
| 10 | Lexi Held | Toronto Tempo | Phoenix Mercury | 1 | |||
| 11 | Chloe Bibby |  Australia |
Portland Fire | Indiana Fever | 1 | ||
| 12 | No selection / pass | – | – | Toronto Tempo | – | – |
Second round
| Pick | Player | Position | Nationality | New team | Former team | WNBA years[a] | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 | María Conde | F |  Spain |
Toronto Tempo | Golden State Valkyries | 0 | [8] |
| 14 | Haley Jones | G | United States |
Portland Fire | Dallas Wings | 2 | |
| 15 | Maria Kliundikova | F |  Russia |
Toronto Tempo | Minnesota Lynx | 2 | |
| 16 | Nyadiew Puoch | G | Australia |
Portland Fire | Atlanta Dream | 0 | |
| 17 | Adja Kane | F | France |
Toronto Tempo | New York Liberty | 1 | |
| 18 | Sarah Ashlee Barker | G | United States |
Portland Fire | Los Angeles Sparks | 1 | |
| 19 | Nikolina Milić | F |  Serbia |
Toronto Tempo | Connecticut Sun | 3 | |
| 20 | Sug Sutton | G | United States |
Portland Fire | Washington Mystics | 3 | |
| 21 | Kitija Laksa | F |  Latvia |
Toronto Tempo | Phoenix Mercury | 1 | |
| 22 | No selection / pass | – | – | Portland Fire | – | – | |
| 23 | Kristy Wallace | G | Australia |
Toronto Tempo | Indiana Fever | 4 | |
| 24 | Nika Mühl | G |  Croatia |
Portland Fire | Seattle Storm | 2 |
Notes
- Number of years played in the WNBA prior to the draft