WNBA players, front office executives and fans will have no choice but to get comfortable with expansion drafts as the league continues its rapid growth from 12 to 18 teams.

Last year, Golden State became the league’s 13th franchise. This year, the Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo will join followed by Cleveland (2028), Detroit (2029) and Philadelphia (2030).

There’s going to be a lot of talent redistribution over the next four years to accommodate the new teams, but the immediate concern for the Storm is Friday’s 12:30 p.m. PT expansion draft, which will be televised on ESPN.

The Storm could lose two players when the Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo fill out their rosters before the upcoming 2026 season.

By virtue of a coin toss, Portland has the first pick and the teams will alternate selections as they select from a designated pool of available players.

Under the terms of the new WNBA collective bargaining agreement (CBA), teams can protect up to five players who were on last year’s roster regardless of their contract status, which are two notable changes from last year when teams were able to protect six players who were under contract.

Players who received the “core” designation or franchise tag multiple times in previous seasons are also eligible, which is different from last year’s expansion draft rules.

It’s also important to note, Portland and Toronto are only able to select one unrestricted free agent in the draft.

To the dismay of inquisitive media and fans, the protected players list from teams that were given to Portland and Toronto on Sunday were not made public.

That’s not going to stop us from projecting which five players the Storm should protect.

To recap, Seattle players under contract include Lexie Brown, Jordan Horston, Dominique Malonga and Nika Muhl, who will sit out her second straight year following a season-ending knee injury.

These are the Storm’s unrestricted free agents: Skylar Diggins, Ezi Magbegor, Tiffany Mitchell, Nneka Ogwumike, Katie Lou Samuelson, Brittney Sykes, Erica Wheeler and Gabby Williams.

Zia Cooke and Mackenzie Holmes are restricted free agents.

One final thought before we get to the predictions: It’s nearly impossible to forecast what the Storm will do over this next month, which is going to be one of the most chaotic periods in league history considering roughly 80% of the league — more than 100 players — are unrestricted free agents.

Dates are still not official, but free agency is expected to begin next week. The top players are looking to cash in on $1.4 million supermax deals — up from the previous $249,244 — and teams will have figure out how to manage a $7 million salary cap, which is significant increase from $1.5 million last season.

It’s also difficult to foresee if first-year coach Sonia Raman and general manager Talisa Rhea will want to keep the core intact from a team that finished 23-21 last year and lost in the first round of the playoffs or begin a rebuild with two (Nos. 3 and 14) first-round picks in the April 13 WNBA draft.

With that being said, here’s a look at the five players the Storm should protect in order of importance. To be clear, things get a little murky after the top two.

Dominique Malonga: Protecting the 20-year-old Malonga, the No. 2 overall pick in last year’s draft, is a no-brainer. There’s no scenario in which they allow her to leave because she’s under a team-friendly contract for the next three years and the 6-foot-6 center, who garnered all-rookie honors, has shown potential of being a generational superstar. She averaged 7.7 points and 4.6 rebounds in 42 games as a reserve.

Gabby Williams: In her seventh season, the 29-year-old Williams played in her first All-Star Game last year and appears to be entering her prime after averaging 11.6 points and 4.2 assists — both career highs — in 2025. During the offseason, Williams has been a frequent visitor at the Storm practice facility, she was the only player who attended Raman’s introductory news conference and she represented the Storm at the WNBA expansion draft lottery.

Nneka Ogwumike: Since her arrival two years ago, Ogwumike has been the Storm’s best player, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the 35-year-old future Hall of Famer will return even if she’s protected. The 10-time All-Star forward is going to have plenty of options in free agency and she may not want to stick around if the Storm opt for a youth movement that could take 2-3 years to build a title contender.

Jordan Horston: Even though she’s coming off a serious knee injury and missed the 2025 season, it makes sense to protect Horston considering her age (24) and she’s under team control for two more years at a relative discount — her 2026 salary was $87,080 under the old CBA. During her two years, the No. 9 overall pick in the 2023 draft and all-rookie choice has shown flashes of promise while averaging 6.9 points, 4.7 rebounds and starting fewer than half of her 75 games.

Ezi Magbegor: It’s unclear if the 26-year-old Magbegor peaked three years ago when she averaged career highs in points (13.8), rebounds (8.1), assists (2.6) and steals (1.1) while garnering her only All-Star nod. Her offensive production has dipped in each of the past two seasons, but the 6-4 center is still a defensive dynamo who set a franchise record and led the league with 96 blocks while notching all-defensive second-team honors. Magbegor may be expendable because it’s uncertain if she can play alongside Malonga and Ogwumike.

That leaves Diggins, Sykes and Wheeler unprotected and, in this scenario, Sykes is likely gone.

The 32-year-old Sykes, who arrived via a trade last August and played 17 games in Seattle including the playoffs, is considered the No. 1 overall pick in a few mock expansion drafts.

One can make a strong case to protect the 35-year-old Diggins, who is a seven-time All-Star, and the 34-year-old Wheeler, who became a fan favorite in Seattle while averaging 10.3 points — her most since 2021 — as a part-time starter.

The veteran point guards revitalized their careers with the Storm, but their relative advanced age and likely salary demand — the veteran minimum for players with at least 10 years of experience is $300,000 — make them expendable.

The Storm could alleviate any fears of losing players in the expansion draft much like the Chicago Sky, which traded their No. 17 overall pick to Portland and No. 26 overall pick to Toronto in the upcoming draft in exchange for an agreement that the teams do not select any players from Chicago’s unprotected list.

In addition to their two first-round selections, the Storm have the No. 16 overall (first in the second round) and No. 39 overall (ninth in the third round) picks in the draft, which includes three rounds and 45 picks.

Last year, the Storm were the only WNBA team that didn’t lose a player in the expansion draft.

Betty Lennox (2008 to the Atlanta Dream) and Francesca Zara (2006 to the Chicago Sky) are the only Storm players taken in an expansion draft.

WNBA key dates

Friday: Expansion draft

April 7-18: Potential date for free agency period

April 13: WNBA draft

April 19: Training camps open

April 25: Storm preseason opener at Golden State

May 8: Storm regular-season opener vs. Golden State

June 30: Commissioner’s Cup championship game

July 24-25: WNBA All-Star weekend

Aug. 31-Sept. 16: FIBA World Cup break

Sept. 23: Storm regular-season finale

Sept. 27: WNBA playoffs begin