WNBA Expansion Draft winners and losers: Fire choose upside, Tempo load up on shooting

WNBA Expansion Draft winners and losers: Fire choose upside, Tempo load up on shooting originally appeared on The Sporting News . Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here . The Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo's first wins -- and losses -- come before the first tip-off of the 2026 WNBA season.

The WNBA has just conducted an expansion draft that has filled out both the Tempo and Fire rosters before the rookie draft will see both teams make a first-round selection on April 13. MORE : WNBA Expansion Draft grades 2026: Live results and analysis for every pick We've already gotten a sense of how Portland and Toronto want to build their rosters ahead of the draft. But which team is better?

Who won the expansion draft? Let's analyze some winners and losers from an interesting Friday afternoon in the WNBA. WNBA Expansion Draft winners & losers 2026 Winner: Bridget Carleton Carleton -- along with 76 other WNBA players -- is an unrestricted free agent as of next week.

But the Fire are the only team that can offer her a maximum salary after Portland took the Canada international with the first pick in the expansion draft. With our 1st pick in the WNBA Expansion Draft, we’ve selected Bridget Carleton from the Minnesota Lynx . pic.