Portland Fire General Manager Vanja Černivec laughs during a press conference after the Women’s National Basketball Association expansion draft, determining the debut roster for the new Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo teams, at the Hyatt Regency at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, Ore., on April 3, 2026.
Eli Imadali / OPB
The Portland Fire chose 11 players from across the WNBA in the league’s expansion draft Friday.
Here’s who the Portland Fire drafted in the first round:
- Bridget Carleton, Minnesota Lynx
- Carla Leite, Golden State Valkyries
- Luisa Geiselsöder, Dallas Wings
- Emily Engstler, Washington Mystics
- Maya Caldwell, Atlanta Dream
- Chloe Bibby, Indiana Fever
- Haley Jones, Dallas Wings
- Nyadiew Puoch, Atlanta Dream
- Sarah Ashlee Barker, Los Angeles Sparks
- Sug Sutton, Washington Mystics
- Nika Mühl, Seattle Storm
FILE - Minnesota Lynx forward Bridget Carleton (6) brings the ball down court against the Golden State Valkyries during the WNBA basketball playoffs Sept. 14, 2025, in Minneapolis. The Portland Fire drafted Carleton with the first pick of the WNBA expansion draft.
Craig Lassig / AP
It’s the first official roster-building move the Fire have been able to make. In a normal year, expansion teams would have had five to six months to build a roster. However, lengthy and tense labor negotiations pushed back the process for the Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo leading up to the 2026 season, condensing their team-building timelines to about five weeks.
Although talks for the new labor agreement pushed back the expansion draft, the terms of the agreement add to the historic nature of the WNBA’s 30th season.
Women’s sports already enjoy strong support in Oregon, and the rekindled Portland Fire are entering the league as women’s basketball is exploding in popularity. The recently negotiated agreement between the league and union will create the first $1 million-plus earner in the WNBA. It will also set up a revenue-sharing arrangement that will share a portion of total revenue with the players.
Players chosen in the expansion draft aren’t guaranteed a spot on the Fire or Tempo’s rosters. But it’s likely many of these players will be on the team when the season starts in May.
This story will be updated.
