Toronto Tempo GM Monica Wright Rogers will begin to build her roster on April 3, when the WNBA holds its expansion draft for the Tempo and the Portland Fire, who join the league for the 2026 season.Cole Burston/The Canadian Press
The Toronto Tempo will finally get to select its first players next week.
The WNBA will hold its 2026 expansion draft on April 3 as the league’s two expansion teams, the Tempo and the Portland Fire, begin building their inaugural rosters before tipping off their inaugural seasons in May.
Now that the WNBA and its players association have agreed to a new collective bargaining agreement, a flurry of off-season business begins.
The expansion draft will have two rounds. The Fire and Tempo will alternate selections from a group of unprotected players made available by the WNBA’s 13 existing teams. It will be a snake-style draft, with the team who gets the first pick in the opening round selecting second in the next round.
ESPN will broadcast the expansion draft in the United States, with coverage starting at 3:30 p.m. ET.
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A coin toss between Portland and Toronto on March 27 will determine which team gets to pick first. The winner of the coin toss gets to choose between the first selection in the expansion draft or the sixth pick in the first round of the college draft, set for April 13. The other team will get the seventh pick in the college draft.
Leading up to the expansion draft, the league’s existing teams will submit a roster list by March 29, including all players under its control at the end of the 2025 regular season. The clubs may protect up to five players and all others will be eligible for selection by Toronto or Portland.
In each round, the Tempo and Fire will alternate picks and receive the right to acquire the player contract of, or the negotiating rights to, one player listed on the unprotected list of each of the existing 13 teams.
The WNBA will also hold free agency in April.
It’s a whirlwind off-season that will culminate in training camps for WNBA teams starting April 19 and opening day on May 8.