The Golden State Valkyries expansion draft could send your favorite WNBA player to the Bay

The WNBA is growing, and a 13th team — the Golden State Valkyries — is coming to the league in time for the 2025 season. But, the Valkyries don’t currently have anyone on their roster, and in order for them to actually have bodies next season, an expansion draft will be held on December 6th on ESPN. Each of the 12 existing WNBA teams can protect up to 6 players from entering the draft — and the Valkyries can select anyone who is not protected to join the newest team in the Bay Area.

How the Valkyries expansion draft will work

The expansion draft is just five weeks away — and team will need to submit which players they are protecting 10 days ahead of it, so those decisions will be made in late November. That’s just a few weeks removed from the conclusion of the WNBA playoffs, and before free agency begins in February, so a lot of players’ free agency situations will be up in the air.

Most top players will be protected, but particularly deep teams may have to leave some fan favorites unprotected. For example, there’s no question about the Chicago Sky protecting Angel Reese, or the Indian Fever protecting Caitlin Clark, but there’s a good chance that a fan-favorite like Kate Martin won’t be one of the 6 protected players for the Las Vegas Aces.

The draft is made more complicated by the fact it occurs prior to free agency — and the incoming free agent class is going to be massive. If a player that is not signed to the 2025 season is selected, Golden State will receive whatever rights to that player that the existing team would have had if the player was not selected in the expansion draft. However, the Valkyries can only select one player who is eligible to become an unrestricted free agent following the 2024 season.

Per league rules, Golden State can chose to core a player that is eligible, so long as they have not been a Core Player for two or more seasons — effectively meaning the Valkyries would adhere to the same free agency rules that otherwise apply. If an unrestricted free agent is selected, but not cored, that player will have the ability to explore free agency and pick a destination, like any other. So, Golden State will acquire the actual contract, or the negotiating rights, of any player they select.

In the 10 day span between teams solidifying their protected players, and the actual expansion draft, the Valkyries can also engage in trades, including agreeing to select a given player and trade them to a different team, or, conversely, agreeing to not pick a specific player despite the fact they are not officially protected.

It’s all quite complicated, but in effect, it means that each team could lose up to one player in order to help create this new WNBA team.

It’s not the first WNBA expansion drat — but it’s the first in a while

The league held expansion drafts in its early seasons: in 1998, when the Detroit Shock and Washington Mystics joined; in 1999, when the Minnesota Lynx and Orlando Magic joined; in 2000, when the Indiana Fever, Miami Sol, Portland Fire, and Seattle Storm joined; in 2006, for the Chicago Sky; and in 2008, for the Atlanta Dream.

But, we haven’t seen any expansion drafts in the last 16 years, so this is relatively new territory — though a potential sign of more to come. An additional expansion draft is expected next offseason, when WNBA teams from Toronto and Portland prepare to join the league.