Credit: Ray Acevedo-USA TODAY Sports
Just about everyone hates the National Women’s Soccer League Expansion Draft.
Teams obviously dread it, because some new, shiny object has come along to pick apart the squad they worked hard to build. Players loathe it, because in a league that has historically offered them no direct right to choose where they play, they could be told to pack up and move without consent from them or their current team, as a trade scenario could at least offer.
Even beyond the act of roster pillaging, teams and players must deal with the angst that is putting out a public list of unprotected players. It’s the type of thing that can hurt a locker room and cause long-term trust issues between players and the team.
Talk to anyone around the NWSL, and they despise the process. And yet! Here we are again, in another double expansion draft two years after the last one.
Angel City FC and San Diego Wave FC changed the trajectory of the expansion draft in late 2021 by largely pre-selecting players from…
