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The WNBA is set to hold its much-anticipated expansion draft for the newly created Golden State Valkyries on Friday. But before the draft can even take place, the league has taken steps to kill much of the excitement surrounding the event.
Fans love an expansion draft. For one, it involves the creation of a new team and they can hypothesize about how that team might perform. But they also enjoy looking at the lists of protected players that each of the other teams in the league put out. It allows a brief peak behind the curtain at which players those teams value the most and how contract status may affect that value.
(*Although, the overwhelming majority of WNBA players are expected to be free agents in 2026 when the new CBA begins.)
WNBA Will Not Release Lists Of Unprotected Players In Expansion Draft
However, Colin Salad of Front Office Sports reports that the league removed a large part of the intrigue of the expansion draft.
“The Valkyries may choose one player at most from each of the other 12 franchises, all of which had a Nov. 25 deadline to submit a list of six protected players to the WNBA,” Salad writes. “However, when the draft airs on ESPN on Friday night, the list of unprotected players—which is the pool the Valkyries can choose from—will not be revealed.”
The NHL (2021), MLS (2022), and NWSL (2023) have each released the list of unprotected players before their respective expansion drafts. The WNBA choosing not to do so shows that it’s worried about the effects of doing so on the relationships between players and their teams. But that is part of the fun!
The WNBA has just 12 current teams, with Golden State set to become its 13th. Each roster is limited to just 12 players. This means that the concentration of talent in the league is well above that in almost every other sport. Current teams will have to expose legitimate, high quality players in the expansion draft. The Valkyries have a clear path to coming very competitive, very quickly.
It’s just a shame that the league seems to be cutting off its nose to spite its face in order to spare players a slight hit to their egos.