Tune in to ESPN tonight at 5:30 pm CT for the 2025 WNBA Expansion Draft presented by State Farm! Wendell Epps breaks down everything Lynx fans need to know.

The W-N-B-A Expansion Draft is coming up on Friday... December sixth.  

Here's what you need to know about what it means for the Lynx. 

The W-N-B-A is adding a new team..... The Golden State Valkyries will start playing in 2025. 

To build their team... Golden State will pick players from each of the league’s current teams... including ours.  

Here’s the deal... by November twenty-fifth... each team was required to submit a Roster List to the league office... with EVERY PLAYER to whom the team has rights... as of the final day of the 2024 regular season..... That included players on the team’s active... suspended... and draft lists... AND ALSO players on the team’s reserved... core... and retired lists... We’re talking EVERY PLAYER... 

From this list... each team will designate a MAXIMUM of SIX “Protected Players” who will NOT be available in the Expansion Draft. 

Those six players are SAFE... and can’t be selected by the Valkyries.  

The rest are on an available list for Draft Day.  

But listen to this... Between the time the Roster Lists are submitted... and a designated time on the day BEFORE the Expansion Draft... Golden State can make trades with existing teams..... This means Golden State can make an agreement to select a particular player... and then TRADE that player to a team OTHER THAN their existing team... Golden State can also make an agreement to select... or NOT SELECT... a particular player from a certain team. 


On December sixth... the Valkyries can pick ONE player from each team's available list... but they don't have to take a player from each team if they don't want to. 

If they choose a player WITHOUT a contract for next season... they’ll have the same opportunity to sign that player as we would have had.  

The Valkyries can only select ONE player in the Expansion Draft who is eligible to become an unrestricted free agent following the 2024 season... But... the Valkyries can only pick a player who has not previously received a CORE DESIGNATION CONTRACT for two or more seasons. 

It’s all super interesting! 

The last time we saw an expansion draft was in 2008... when the Atlanta Dream picked Kristen Mann from the Lynx.  

With more teams expected to join in the future... this process will happen again over the next few off seasons... as the W-N-B-A continues to expand.  

So... mark December sixth on your calendar!