Golden State Valkyries expansion draft: WNBA sets date, rules for newest team

The newest team in the WNBA will find out who its players will be during December.

The league announced Monday that the expansion draft for the Golden State Valkyries, the 13th and newest franchise in the league, will take place on Dec. 6.

The Valkyries will hold their inaugural season in 2025. In May, the logo and colors for the Valkyries were unveiled. The team said then that a Valkyrie originates "from Norse mythology and that the nickname represents" a host of warrior women who are fearless and unwavering – flying through air and sea alike."

Here's everything you need to know about the WNBA expansion draft for the Golden State Valkyries:

How will the WNBA expansion draft work?

Upon the conclusion of the 2024 season, each of the 12 current teams in the WNBA will submit a comprehensive roster list to the league office. That list will detail each player whose rights that respective team holds, as of the final day of the 2024 regular season. The deadline to submit the list is expected to be around late November.

Each team will have the chance to designate a maximum of six "protected players" who will become ineligible for selection in the expansion draft. All other players not designated as protected will be available for Golden State to select.

The Valkyries will then have the chance to acquire the contract or negotiating rights to one of the non-protected, available players from each of the 12 current WNBA teams.

Golden State may select a player who is not signed to a contract for the 2025 season. If that happens, the Valkyries would receive any rights to that player that the player's existing team would hold. Golden State will have the chance to select only one player who is eligible to become an unrestricted free agent in February.

Players who have been on a core player contract for at least two seasons are not eligible to be selected in the expansion draft. Any other soon-to-be unrestricted free agents who are eligible for the expansion draft can be selected, provided Golden State designates that player as its one core player in January.

An interesting wrinkle is that Golden State will be allowed to make trades from the moment the roster lists are submitted through the expansion draft, in which the Valkyries could enter an agreement to select a particular player during the expansion draft and then send that player to another team.

How to watch the WNBA expansion draft

Details are not available yet, but the WNBA expansion draft for the Valkyries will be broadcast on ESPN on Friday, Dec. 6.