The 2025 WNBA season is officially over, and what promises to be a crazy offseason has begun. This offseason will largely be dominated by the ongoing CBA negotiations and potential player movement. Not only will the WNBA have to hold expansion drafts for the Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire, but almost every veteran in the league will also be a free agent.
Most players are free agents because of the new CBA, not because they are seriously considering leaving their current teams. Still, there could be a lot of movement this offseason and some teams may look very different. ESPN’s Alexa Philippou and Michael Voepel recently published a free agency outlook and cited Golden State as one of the teams that could change a lot ahead of the 2026 season.
“It makes sense that free agents prior to the 2025 past season wanted to see how the first year went for the expansion Valkyries. Safe to say they were impressed by the atmosphere at Chase Center—which sold out every home game and was nicknamed ‘Ballhalla’—and the success of Golden State, which became the first expansion team to reach the playoffs in its inaugural season. So, in the upcoming free agency, the Valkyries might be able to bring in some bigger stars,” Voepel wrote about the Valkyries.
Given the Valkyries’ obvious goal of winning a championship in the near future, it makes sense to expect them to try to use their first-season success to attract big-time free agents and build a contender. That would leave some fan favorites on the outside looking in, though.
Several role players found a supportive and adoring fanbase in the Bay Area
The Valkyries built their identity on the fact that the team was largely made up of players who didn’t have an established place elsewhere in the league or weren’t important enough to their former teams to be protected in the expansion draft. Despite lacking star status and impressive resumes, many of the Valkyries’ role players quickly became fan favorites.
Kate Martin, Kaitlyn Chen, and Laeticia Amihere, for example, didn’t play huge roles for the Valkyries, but endeared themselves to the fanbase. When Chen and Amihere didn’t make the initial roster, many fans were upset and then ecstatic when both were picked up again later in the season.
The Valkyries’ roster may look very different next season
The Valkyries have two players on rookie contracts: Kate Martin and Carla Leite. Everyone else will be either an unrestricted, restricted, or reserved free agent, and the Valkyries will have to choose who they want to bring back and which positions should be upgraded.
Given their success as an All-Star and the Most Improved Player, the Valkyries will likely do everything in their power to re-sign Kayla Thornton and Veronica Burton. All-Rookie Team member Janelle Salaün should also be back for another season, and Cecilia Zandalasini made her case for another contract with the Valkyries with big games at the end of the season.
The rest probably depends on who the Valkyries can attract in free agency and how many players they will have to leave unprotected in the expansion draft.
If the Valkyries truly become a free-agency destination after their impressive first season, some of the fringe rotation players fans grew to love may not be on the roster next year.