The Real NWSL Expansion Draft Has Been the Trading That's Happened Along the Way

Thursday night's roster-building exercise for San Diego and Angel City has become significantly pared down due to the power of threat and leverage.

At this point, it might be more necessary to spell out what isn't up for grabs in NWSL's expansion draft rather than what is.

The exercise ahead of the 2022 season, where Angel City FC and San Diego Wave FC are poised to pad their inaugural squads, will technically take place Thursday night, but much of the business end has already been handled. It appears that the mere threat of poaching talent in the draft forum has more value than the actual poaching itself, and a year after only one team traded away assets for expansion draft immunity from Racing Louisville FC, it has become a more widespread trend—with some protection getting downright specific. 

North Carolina Courage players? Nope. Gotham FC? Try again. Chicago Red Stars? Absolutely not. (KC Current players were already exempt due to terms of the team's launch ahead of last season.)

OL Reign? San Diego can have at it, but Angel City can hit only midfielders, defenders and goalkeepers (specifically, forwards Bethany Balcer, Tziarra King, Leah Pruitt, Megan Rapinoe and Ally Watt are all safe from the L.A.-based team). Portland Thorns and Racing Louisville? That's a no for Angel City—and Portland is reportedly, if not officially, off limits for San Diego. What about the defending champion Washington Spirit? It's hands off for San Diego, while Angel City can pick from only unprotected non-allocated players (so no-go on Kelley O'Hara, Emily Sonnett and Andi Sullivan).

Unprotected players from the Houston Dash and Orlando Pride? O.K., that's fair game.

Got that?

What was due to be a nine-round, 18-player extravaganza has since been trimmed considerably, with only eight players set to be selected. The Dash and Pride each stand to lose players to both clubs, while Louisville will lose a player to San Diego and Washington will yield one—but not one of the three U.S. internationals listed above—to Angel City. OL Reign, meanwhile, will brace for a pair of departures, but it has at least controlled, to a greater degree, Angel City's options.

In one sense, it's smart business from the two California clubs. Instead of sifting through set lists of unprotected players and building through the confines of the expansion draft, they've wielded their threat and some allocation money in order to acquire talent that otherwise might not have been available. Seven trades have, in some way, secured a form of immunity and protection from the expansion draft process, and as part of them, the likes of Julie Ertz, Christen Press, Kailen Sheridan and Sarah Gorden have been dealt, along with a total of $435,000 in allocation money.

Imago Images (2)/Angel City FC (1)

That is in addition to separate, landscape-altering deals that have seen U.S. internationals Alex Morgan (when the trade window re-opens on Friday, anyway), Sam Mewis, Abby Dahlkemper, Ashlyn Harris and Ali Krieger all change clubs. The NWSL offseason is accustomed to being peppered with blockbuster deals, and with the introduction of two ambitious clubs, 2021 is no different.

But as clubs further attempt to control the movement during the expansion process, what is actually up for grabs? Aside from the comical playing rights of players who are long retired (Abby Wambach has to be the first founding investor of an expansion club who could, in theory, choose herself in an expansion draft), U.S. women's national team midfielder Kristie Mewis is probably the biggest name likely to change addresses, though Tobin Heath's playing rights (she is currently playing for Arsenal) are in play for a second straight year. Rapinoe, technically, could be picked by San Diego, although that seems unlikely to occur. Ironically, the two players Chicago traded for expansion draft immunity from Louisville last year, Yuki Nagasato and Savannah McCaskill, are also eligible to be poached by San Diego.

Taking into account what's already been acquired, here's what the league's two new clubs are looking like ahead of Thursday night's draft:

SAN DIEGO WAVE FC

GOALKEEPERS: Kailen Sheridan

DEFENDERS: Abby Dahlkemper, Tegan McGrady

MIDFIELDERS: Angharad James

FORWARDS: Makenzy Doniak, Katie Johnson, Alex Morgan*, Jodie Taylor, Kelsey Turnbow

COACH: Casey Stoney

*Can only become official on Friday

ANGEL CITY FC

GOALKEEPERS: DiDi Haračić

DEFENDERS: Sarah Gorden, Mary Alice Vignola

MIDFIELDERS: Katie Cousins, Julie Ertz, Cari Roccaro

FORWARDS: Simone Charley, Tyler Lussi, Christen Press

COACH: Freya Coombe