The WNBA is hosting the expansion draft for their 14th and 15th franchises, the Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo. This summer, the PWHL is set to expand to either 10 or 12 teams. If the PWHL expansion draft occurred today, who would each team protect and lose?
Something is strange to me about it being easier to keep players you didn’t sign to an extension than this that you did:
Seattle Torrent
Because the Torrent didn’t sign Hilary Knight, Julia Gosling, or Alex Carpenter to extensions, they can keep these players, as long as they can re-sign them, and Knight has openly stated she plans to stay. It means they can bolster their depth by protecting a group of skaters. Worst case scenario would see expansion teams pluck both goaltenders.
This seems like a total scam to the rest of the league, tampering even… It’s part of the chess match, but it’s blows for other teams. I know the fleet benefited from it with taps, but lost so much other talent, and stand to lose so much more next year.
I’m just sad to see some of my favs go, after being gutted last year.
I don’t think I would go quite that far. Because they are free agents, any team can come and offer them a contract next season, not just their current team. There’s nothing to prevent the Fleet from offering Carpy everything they have left under the cap to come back after the draft. The Torrent are just betting they’re the team that will be able to offer the best contract.