WNBA free‑agency lists

The Women’s National Basketball Association just turned free agency into a live roster board: teams sent out qualifying offers and core tags on April 6-7, talks opened on April 8, and contracts can start getting signed on April 11. The league’s new 2026 hub is built to update those moves in one place instead of making fans chase 13 team feeds. (wnba.com 1) (wnba.com 2) That list matters because “free agent” in the Women’s National Basketball Association does not mean one thing. The league sorts out-of-contract players into four buckets — unrestricted, restricted, reserved, and core — and each bucket gives teams a different amount of control. (wnba.com) An unrestricted free agent is the cleanest case: that player can negotiate with any team with no strings attached. If a club wants instant scoring, a backup center, or a veteran point guard, this is the part of the market where it can simply make its pitch. (wnba.com) A restricted free agent is usually a player with four years of service whose old team sent a qualifying offer before the deadline. That player can still shop for a deal elsewhere, but the previous team gets the right to match the offer sheet and keep her. (wnba.com) A reserved player is even less open to the market. If a player has three years of service or fewer and her team extends a reserved qualifying offer, that team keeps exclusive negotiating rights instead of letting the player talk freely around the league. (wnba.com) The core designation is the strongest tool of the four, and the league itself compares it to a franchise tag. A team can have only one veteran free agent cored at a time, and that core offer is a fully guaranteed one-year supermax deal that blocks the player from negotiating with other teams unless a sign-and-trade is worked out. (wnba.com) This year’s timing is tighter than many fans are used to because the Women’s National Basketball Association and the Women’s National Basketball Players Association agreed to an April calendar: designation on April 6-7, negotiation on April 8-10, and signings starting April 11. That puts free agency directly in front of the April 13 draft, so front offices are building rosters and draft boards at the same time. (wnba.com) The backdrop is a league that is adding teams fast. The 2026 expansion draft for Toronto and Portland was held on April 3, and the league said every existing team had already submitted roster lists covering active, suspended, draft list or reserved, core, and retired categories. (wnba.com 1) (wnba.com 2) So the new free-agency lists are not just a directory of names. They are the map showing which players can walk, which players can be matched, which players are still tied to their old teams, and which stars have effectively been locked down before the first contract can even be signed on April 11. (wnba.com 1) (wnba.com 2)