CHICAGO — The Chicago Sky made a proactive and strategic move ahead of the 2026 WNBA Expansion Draft, reaching agreements with the league’s newest franchises, the Toronto Tempo and the Portland Fire, to ensure neither team selects a Sky player.
Chicago agreed to swap pick No. 17 for pick No. 21 with Portland in the 2026 WNBA Draft in exchange for the Fire agreeing not to select any player from Chicago’s unprotected list. The Sky also sent pick No. 26 in the 2026 draft (via New York) to Toronto in exchange for the Tempo agreeing not to draft a Sky player.
As a result of the deals, Chicago will retain its entire roster while still holding three selections in the upcoming draft: No. 5 overall in the first round, No. 21 overall in the second round, and No. 32 overall in the third round.
While the move may seem unusual to some fans, similar strategies have appeared in other professional leagues during expansion drafts when teams look to eliminate the risk of losing valuable contributors.
One of the most notable examples occurred during the 2017 NHL expansion draft involving the Vegas Golden Knights. As the Golden Knights prepared to build their inaugural roster, several teams around the league made deals with Vegas to influence which players would or would not be selected.
Perhaps the most well known example came when the Florida Panthers traded forward Reilly Smith and a fourth round pick to Vegas in exchange for the Golden Knights selecting Jonathan Marchessault from Florida’s roster and agreeing to pass on other players the Panthers wanted to keep. The deal allowed Florida to maintain control over which pieces of its roster were lost during the expansion process while giving Vegas additional assets to build its new franchise.
Moves like that illustrate a simple front office philosophy during expansion drafts: sometimes giving up a small asset is worth avoiding the uncertainty of losing a valuable player.
The Chicago Sky appear to have followed a similar line of thinking. WNBA rosters are small, and losing even one rotation player can significantly affect depth and continuity. By moving down a few spots in the draft and parting with a later pick, Chicago eliminated the risk entirely.
Instead of waiting to see which player might be taken, the Sky secured agreements that guarantee their roster remains intact.
With their core preserved and the No. 5 overall pick still in hand, Chicago now enters the 2026 WNBA Draft with both roster stability and the opportunity to add another impact player to the franchise.
