In a flurry of last-minute trades, multiple NWSL teams secured 2024 expansion draft protection from one or both of Bay FC and the Utah Royals. Player rights, allocation money and draft picks changed hands. The two newest teams in the league will now prepare for the expansion draft on Friday, Dec. 15. They can pick from five total teams after the other seven acquired full protection through trades.
The way teams have done business so far has ultimately made the expansion draft seem like it should become a relic, particularly in the wake of some teams misinterpreting the rules about how many players can be selected from each team. On Sunday evening, all nine teams were fair game. Now, Bay FC can select from four teams and Utah can pick from three. Were some last-minute deals driven by panic? Was it just the nature of negotiations with at least one party willing to go to the wire?
Regardless of the motivation, the result is that both expansion teams have come out of this in a decent position. Now that teams have announced their list of protected and unprotected players, here’s how things stand after the expansion trade announcement deadline:
What each team acquired
Utah Royals
Players: Hannah Betfort (Portland Thorns) Mikayla Cluff (Orlando Pride), Kate Del Fava (KC Current), Emily Gray (NC Courage), Mandy Haught (Gotham FC), Kaleigh Riehl (San Diego Wave), Frankie Tagliaferri (NC Courage), Cameron Tucker (Houston Dash)
Draft picks: No. 4, No. 20, No. 21, No. 26, No. 33 in the 2024 college draft on Jan. 12
Money: Spent $245k net allocation money
Misc: One international roster spot
Can select from: Chicago Red Stars, OL Reign, Racing Louisville
Bay FC
Players: Joelle Anderson (Houston Dash), Dorian Bailey (Washington Spirit), Scarlett Camberos (Angel City), Ellie Jean (Gotham FC), Alex Loera (KC Current), Emily Menges (Portland Thorns)
College draft picks: No. 8, No. 28, No. 34, No. 42 in the 2024 college draft on Jan. 12
Money: Spent $325k net allocation money, received $235k alternative allocation money
Can select from: Chicago Red Stars, NC Courage, OL Reign, San Diego Wave
Winners and losers
Winner: The Orlando Pride took care of business early. While they lost a first round draft pick in addition to Cluff and a low second rounder, they received $140k in allocation money.
Honorable mention: Racing Louisville gets half a W for their deal with Bay FC in which they gave up a third round pick and alternative allocation money, but got back the No. 15 pick overall in the 2024 college draft. Alternative allocation money is a good deal because it’s not actual allocation dollars, but the right to purchase more allocation money from the league. Louisville had been sitting on a bit of a hoard there, and parlayed money that essentially didn’t exist in their coffers into protection from one team.
Loser: The Current gave up two excellent young players, Kate Del Fava and Alex Loera, as well as the No. 4 overall college draft pick in 2024. They did get back $250k in allocation money, however, they’re going to have to spend it to replace two really good players who were already familiar with their system. Unless they make a further trade (always possible!), the Current won’t select a player in the 2024 college draft until the second round.
Loser: What’s going with Chicago Red Stars and Reign FC? These are two teams that were recently sold or are currently in the sale process, so maybe a little bit of uncertainty is to be expected. For Chicago in particular, they might see this as a chance for the roster refresh they were going to work on anyway after their last-place finish in 2023.
And to be fair, there’s probably also consideration over things like free agency. Does Chicago have the assets to deal with trading for expansion protection when players like Mal Swanson and Tierna Davidson are free agents?
For the Reign, they’re also staring down the barrel of life without free agent Rose Lavelle, as well as players like Emily Sonnett and Tziarra King, so expansion draft anxiety might be at the bottom of their list.
What happens on Friday?
Teams officially turned in their lists of protected and unprotected players, which were made public on Wednesday. Unprotected players are available for selection in Friday’s expansion draft, which will air live on CBS Sports Network at 7 PM ET. Bay FC will pick first, determined by random selection.
After an expansion team selects a player from a club, that club is permitted to protect one additional player. The extra player protection mechanism could be a slight factor if teams are gambling that Utah or Bay FC will go for certain targets first.
While under-18 players and free agents are not eligible for selection, retired players are technically still available. Some charmingly strange artifacts of NWSL’s roster rules include the availability of playing rights for former players who have retired, and, in some cases are general managers of NWSL team, aka Karina LeBlanc.
It’ll be a short draft regardless, so good luck to the CBS Sports crew on stretching things out for the full hour scheduled.
— This article originally appeared in The Athletic.