The Portland Fire will hold the first overall pick in the 2026 WNBA Expansion Draft after the Toronto Tempo won a coin toss but opted for a better position in the annual college draft instead.
The Portland Fire will select first in the WNBA Expansion Draft 2026. Toronto had the chance. They passed on it.
The league held a coin toss on Thursday between the two expansion franchises to determine priority in the expansion process. The Toronto Tempo won the toss but declined the top spot, opting instead for the sixth pick in the first round of the annual WNBA Draft on April 13. Portland gets the first expansion pick as a result — and slides to seventh in the college draft.
The expansion draft is set to air on ESPN on April 3 at 3:30 p.m. ET. Both franchises will have two rounds and up to 24 total selections to build their rosters — 12 apiece. The picks snake, so Portland opens Round 1 at No. 1, and Toronto opens Round 2 at No. 13. Each selection gives a franchise the contract or negotiating rights to one player off an existing team's unprotected list.
The existing 13 franchises have until Sunday, March 29, to submit full roster lists to the WNBA, which includes every player the team holds rights to, regardless of whether they're active, suspended, on a draft designation, or retired. From there, teams can protect up to five players while everyone else is fair game.
One key detail concerns the pathway for acquiring veteran players. Any player who finished her previous contract with five or more years of WNBA service through the end of the 2025 season gets a "Potential Unrestricted Free Agent" designation and must appear on either the protected or unprotected list. However, there are limitations to the expansion teams, as they can select only one of those players. If they do, they inherit the right to offer a supermax contract even if that player can no longer be designated as a Core Player by her previous team.
Portland and Toronto can also make trades with existing teams prior to the draft, including agreements to take or skip a specific player, or to select someone and immediately move her elsewhere. If a selected player isn't signed for 2026, the expansion team picks up whatever rights the existing franchise held.
The coin toss result impacts the final order of the college draft as well. Toronto picks sixth in Round 1, seventh in Round 2, and sixth in Round 3. Portland gets seventh in Round 1, sixth in Round 2, and seventh in Round 3.