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To conquer NWSL, getting those role players that can add stability and make a difference is often key. On Friday night, new expansion franchises Bay FC and Utah Royals have the opportunity to build their squad in hopes of surprising next season. The upcoming NWSL Expansion Draft will have a different look and feel compared to past events and fans can watch every expansion selection on CBS Sports Network.

Here's what you need to know about the past and future of the draft:

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NWSL Expansion Draft history

Back in the early days of the league, there was no NWSL Players Association or Collective Bargaining Agreement, and U.S. Soccer was still a managing partner providing player salaries to national team players through an allocation system.

Over the years as the league has expanded, rules for the expansion draft have changed. The Houston Dash have the honor of being the first-ever expansion club in NWSL history followed by Orlando Pride. Since 2016, there was plenty of standing still and even clubs that folded operations, as the league functioned with nine teams for two seasons in 2018 and 2019.

After the pandemic affected the 2020 season that introduced the Challenge Cup, Kansas City Current absorbed a previous iteration of Utah Royals, and Racing Louisville FC arrived in 2021. This new decade of the league welcomed Los Angeles and San Diego as expansion teams in 2022. U.S. Soccer also stepped away as a managing partner and the union is in year two of their CBA. Still, the most recent examples of the teams trading out of the expansion draft event may signal the urgent need to re-examine how expansion teams build out their rosters.

Biggest draft moment

Unfortunately, a bunch of trades before a league deadline, as we just saw, is not the biggest NWSL Expansion Draft moment. Back when U.S. allocation players existed, teams truly leaned into the "asset" side of the event and figured out ways to trade players around to get their preferred target using other considerations, even if it meant moving a player through four different teams. It sounds shifty and suspenseful, and it was exactly what happened in 2015 with the Meghan Klingenberg trade.

The multi-team Klingenberg trade
2015 USWNT World Cup champion Klingenberg was allocated to first-year expansion side Houston Dash. She became a part of NWSL Expansion Draft lore when her rights crossed three teams before becoming a member of the Portland Thorns.

Dash traded Klingenberg to Seattle Reign (currently OL Riegn) for Amber Brooks and a conditional 2017 NWSL Draft pick. Ultimately, the Reign left Klingenberg unprotected, triggering a condition to upgrade the college draft pick if selected in the expansion draft by the Pride. When the U.S. allocated player system existed, their selection in an expansion draft shielded them from having any more players selected in the event, so the Reign let go of a player that never suited up for them. 

Klingenberg was then selected by the Pride and then traded to Portland for USWNT forward Alex Morgan, former Canadian international Kaylyn Kyle, the No. 1 pick in the 2016 NWSL Draft (that became Emily Sonnett), and an international spot for 2016 and 2017. The deal for the Thorns also contained the eventual playing rights to Lindsey Horan (sending the 2016 No. 10 draft pick to Orlando) as she moved from Paris Saint Germain to NWSL. 

Since the chaotic 2015 offseason trades, Klingenberg has become a backline staple and fan favorite, winning multiple titles with the club since her arrival. 

Expansion draft relevancy

Dual expansion draft is no longer a new concept with Angel City and Wave FC setting the precedent with a flurry of trades ahead of the 2021 NWSL Expansion Draft. Bay Area and Utah have followed the blueprint and will only have a handful of clubs to make player selections on Friday. In 2026, NWSL Boston and an expansion market to be named will be a third attempt at a dual-expansion process. 

So do two recent expansion draft events with limited participation mean the league should lead once more and look for an alternative for future teams to build rosters? Rules and processes have been reevaluated in nearly every expansion process since the first draft event in 2015. 

There are no longer rules for allocated players as the concept no longer exists. Free agency is here and there are no trade clauses in contracts that now have to be honored. Even with improvements for player labor, there's still the general ickiness of a player not having self agency or say in how their careers are navigated. An expansion draft in women's professional sports widely differs from that on the men's side. 

The 2020 NWSL Expansion Draft is probably the best example of how disconnected coaches and executives were from the concept of roster building and well-being when Racing Louisville FC selected several players and player rights with multiple unknown outcomes. Two-time U.S. women's national team World Cup champions Tobin Heath and Christen Press recently discussed the stark differences and uncertainties on their RE-INC RE-CAP Show.

"When you're talking about the NWSL, you're talking about players living in, often, in team housing, which is not always great," said Press.

"You're talking about, you know, getting some sort of trade stipend where you have to, like, figure out how to move all your stuff. Get out of leases you really can't afford. Often players cannot afford to make long-term leases because they might get traded, and they can't pay for that lease and also get traded and have to pay for a different lease. The financial restrictions on our lives are much more severe than it is on other leauges and that has a great implication on how trades and expansion drafts feel."