No matter what happens in the WNBA’s upcoming condensed offseason, the odds of the Las Vegas Aces keeping every member of their 2025 championship winning team are slim to none.

The first illustration of that idea will be the expansion draft, through which two incoming teams; the Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo, will build their rosters from those of the existing 13 organizations.

Terms of the draft couldn’t be set until terms of a new CBA were agreed upon. After a year and a half of labor talks and a marathon final week of negotiations, the WNBA and WNBPA finally reached a handshake agreement on March 18.

The agreement has since been ratified by the players and the WNBA Board of Governors, and the full legal document should be completed and signed in the next week.

With that hurdle cleared, the league announced the expansion draft will take place at 3:30 p.m. April 3.

Existing teams are required to submit a list of the players they plan to protect from the draft by Sunday.

What are the draft rules?

Draft order for the expansion teams was determined by a coin flip that took place Friday, resulting in the Fire taking the first pick.

Like all existing teams, the Aces will be able to protect five players from the expansion draft. This includes players on active contracts and players the Aces have the rights to in core qualification, restricted free agency or suspended contracts.

The Aces stand to lose up to two players. The draft will be two rounds, with Toronto and Portland making six picks per round. After a player from an existing team’s unprotected list is picked in the first round, neither team will be allowed to select from that team’s unprotected list until the second round. The Fire and Tempo will be able to make up to 12 selections each for 24 selections total.

Any unprotected player who has five or more years of service and does not have a contract for the 2026 season will be considered a “Potential Unrestricted Free Agent,” the league said. The expansion teams can only select one player each who fits that description.

In a unique quirk this year, there are only two veterans in the league who aren’t free agents. This is because most players delayed signing beyond 2025 in anticipation of the increased salaries under the new CBA.

In an adjustment made this year due to those circumstances, players who are no longer eligible to receive the core designation (works like an NFL franchise tag, can only be applied to a player twice in their career) can still be selected in the expansion draft. The selecting team will become the only franchise able to offer them a supermax contract in 2026. This doesn’t require the selected player to accept it, but puts the selecting expansion team at an advantage to make the top offer. None of the Aces’ players are ineligible for the core designation.

If one of the expansion teams picks a player who is eligible for a core designation, the selecting team will have those rights.

There are five days between the submission of protected players and the expansion draft. During that time, expansion teams will be allowed to explore potential trades with existing teams. The Aces could be a team to watch during this period given the caliber of their roster.

The incoming teams can agree to select a particular player in the expansion draft and trade that player to another existing team. They could also agree to select or not select a particular player from an existing team’s unprotected list in exchange for assets. This would be an ideal scenario for the Aces but might be a difficult one considering that they only have their own second and third-round picks in 2027. The Aces don’t have any rights to suspended players or international draftees, either.

Who will the Aces protect in the expansion draft?

Here is who Review-Journal projects will be the protected players for the Aces in the 2026 expansion draft:

A’ja Wilson (unrestricted free agent)
Chelsea Gray (unrestricted free agent)
Jackie Young (unrestricted free agent)
Jewell Loyd (unrestricted free agent)
NaLyssa Smith (restricted free agent)

The first three on this list are obvious picks. Wilson, Young and Gray have won three WNBA championships together in four years. Wilson is the league’s only four-time MVP, and she’s expected to re-sign with the team on a supermax contract after years of team-friendly deals. Gray and Young are also valuable veterans, with Gray cementing herself as the offense’s anchor and Young having developed into one of the league’s best two-way guards.

For the remaining two spots, it would make sense for the Aces to protect the value they’ve already invested. Loyd joined the Aces in the blockbuster three-team deal that granted Kelsey Plum’s trade request and sent her to the Los Angeles Sparks. The Aces gave their 2026 first-rounder to the Seattle Storm in the trade. Loyd earned the previous supermax with the Aces last year, and although her production didn’t necessarily match that salary, she adapted into a hybrid role of playing starter minutes off the bench that proved crucial for the Aces in the stretch run of their most recent title pursuit.

Similarly, the Aces saw a return from giving up their 2027 first-round pick in the trade with the Dallas Wings that yielded Smith. Aces president Nikki Fargas told the Review-Journal at the time that the move was made with the present and future in mind, and Smith said in exit interviews that knowing she’d found “stability” with the Aces took a weight off her shoulders.

With only five spots, Dana Evans and Aaliyah Nye are glaring potential omissions the Aces could attempt to keep somehow. Evans was a postseason hero for the Aces, which acquired her from the Chicago Sky for two 2025 second-rounders (No. 16 and No. 22). Nye, the Aces’ No. 13 pick in the 2025 draft, showed promise as a shooting threat in her rookie season.

Contact Callie Fin at cfin@reviewjournal.com. Follow @Callie__Fin on X.