The anxiously awaited NWSL Expansion Draft will occur on December 15 , Friday 2023 .
Full details were announced by the league ,
which will populate the rosters of Utah Royals and Bay FC . The draft will take place virtually on Friday , Dec . 15 , with existing clubs required to submit a list of protected and unprotected players to the league by no later than 11 AM PT on Tuesday , Dec . 12 .
Each team is permitted to protect nine players , with no consideration for position group or national team status .
A team can protect one additional player after one of their unprotected players is selected , and each team can lose no more than two players in the draft .
Notably , unsigned free
agents are not eligible for selection in the draft and do not need to be protected , giving clubs an incentive to wait to sign any such players until after the expansion draft . OL Reign ’ s current roster includes five players who will either be restricted or unrestricted free agents this offseason : Angelina , Tziarra King , Rose Lavelle , Emily Sonnett , and Nikki Stanton .
In addition , any player signed via the league ’ s recently added U-18 mechanism are automatically exempt from the draft , and players with no-trade clauses must be included in a team ’ s list of nine protected players . Players who are on loan , such as Luany and Jimena López , and those who have left the league but whose NWSL rights are still controlled by a club , are eligible for selection in the draft .
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UTAH ROYALS and BAY FC each start with 12 ( twelve ) expansion draft picks , with Bay FC selecting first and the teams alternating picks .
In the previous expansion draft , many teams made pre-draft trades with Angel City and San Diego to further protect
their rosters and we might see similar moves ahead of this year ’ s draft after the postseason trade window opens .
In addition to the expansion draft rules , the league announced several additional details surrounding initial team-building activities for the two expansion clubs . Most notably , in addition to the $ 600,000 in allocation money each team could purchase in 2023 , they were given access to an additional $ 240,000 in allocation money , all of which can be carried forward to 2024 if unspent . They are also able to pay up to $ 500,000 in transfer fees over the next year without that money counting against their available allocation money .