An expansion draft, in professional sports, occurs when a sports league decides to create one or more new expansion teams or franchises. This occurs mainly in North American sports and closed leagues. One of the ways of stocking the new team or teams is an expansion draft. Although how each league conducts them varies, and they vary from occasion to occasion, the system is usually something similar to the following:
The Australian Football League draft is the annual draft of unsigned players, especially new nominations, by Australian rules football teams that participate in the main competition of that sport, the Australian Football League (AFL).
On November 18, 1997, Major League Baseball (MLB) held an expansion draft to allow two expansion teams, the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, to build their rosters prior to debuting in the National League West and American League East divisions, respectively, in the 1998 MLB season. The draft took place in the Phoenix Civic Center in Phoenix, Arizona.
The 1993 NHL expansion draft was an expansion draft held by the National Hockey League (NHL) to fill the rosters of the league's two expansion teams for the 1993–94 season, the Florida Panthers and the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. The draft took place on June 24, 1993, in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.
The 2000 NHL expansion draft was held on June 23, 2000, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The draft took place to fill the rosters of the league's two expansion teams for the 2000–01 season, the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Minnesota Wild.
The 1967 NHL expansion draft was held on June 6, 1967, in the ballroom of the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, Quebec. The draft took place to fill the rosters of the league's six expansion teams for the 1967–68 season: the California Seals, Los Angeles Kings, Minnesota North Stars, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins and the St. Louis Blues.
The Philippine Basketball Association draft is an annual event dating back to 1985 in which the twelve teams from the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) can draft players who are eligible and wish to join the league. The draft usually takes place between October and December, during the league's off-season. No player may sign with the PBA until he has been eligible for at least one draft.
On November 17, 1992, during the 1992–93 offseason, Major League Baseball (MLB) held an expansion draft in New York City to allow two expansion teams, the Florida Marlins and Colorado Rockies, to build their rosters prior to debuting in the National League's (NL) East and West divisions, respectively, in the 1993 MLB season.
Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) was the top-level professional women's soccer league in the United States. It began play on March 29, 2009. The league was composed of seven teams for its first two seasons and fielded six teams for the 2011 season, with continued plans for future expansion. The WPS was the highest level in the United States soccer pyramid for the women's game.
FC Gold Pride was an American professional women's soccer club based in the San Francisco Bay Area, which participated in Women's Professional Soccer. The club replaced the San Jose CyberRays of the defunct Women's United Soccer Association as the top-level women's soccer team in the San Francisco Bay Area. FC Gold Pride moved to its final home of Pioneer Stadium on the campus of CSU East Bay in June 2010 after opening their 2010 home schedule at the Castro Valley High School Athletic Stadium. The club ceased operations in November 2010 after struggling financially and being unable to find new investors.
The Atlanta Beat was an American soccer club based in Atlanta, Georgia that competed on a professional level. The team joined Women's Professional Soccer as an expansion team in 2010, and played its home games at Kennesaw State University Soccer Stadium, the result of a public-private partnership between the team and Kennesaw State University. The club took the name and logo of the former Atlanta Beat (WUSA) of the defunct Women's United Soccer Association.
Leigh Ann Brown is an American former soccer defender. She previously played for FC Kansas City of the National Women's Soccer League, FC Gold Pride, Atlanta Beat, and the Philadelphia Independence of the Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) and earned two caps with the United States women's national soccer team.
The 2009 WPS International Draft was a special draft for the Women's Professional Soccer teams Atlanta Beat and Philadelphia Independence taking place on September 22, 2009. Each expansion team picked up to five international players, to be roughly even with the seven existing WPS teams.
The 2010 Saint Louis Athletica season was the second and final season for the team, both in Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) and as an organization. On May 27, 2010, WPS announced that Athletica would fold effective immediately, forcing the league to finish the 2010 season with seven teams.
The 2013 Canadian Football League Expansion Draft was a three-round CFL Draft that took place on Monday December 16, 2013. It was designed to assign players from existing CFL teams to the expansion Ottawa Redblacks. The structure of the draft was announced on January 19, 2011, which described one round for selecting import players and two rounds for selecting non-import players. Additionally, the Redblacks were given the last pick in each of the first four rounds of the 2013 CFL Draft and will also be given the first pick in every round of the 2014 CFL Draft.
The 2010 WPS Expansion Draft was a special draft for the Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) expansion team Western New York Flash that took place on November 20, 2010. The Flash had the opportunity to make nine player selections from the existing seven WPS teams.
The 2014 NWSL Expansion Draft was a special draft held on January 10 by the National Women's Soccer League to allow the expansion side Houston Dash to select players. The Dash were allowed to select ten players from the existing eight NWSL teams.
The 2014 MLS Expansion Draft was a draft for the Major League Soccer expansion teams New York City FC and Orlando City SC that took place between November 19 and December 10, 2014. The first two rounds of the draft were held to distribute players who were formerly contracted with Chivas USA, which was dissolved by the league in October 2014 shortly after the end of the 2014 MLS season.
The 2017 NHL expansion draft was an expansion draft conducted by the National Hockey League on June 18–20, 2017 to fill the roster of the league's expansion team for the 2017–18 season, the Vegas Golden Knights. The team's selections were announced on June 21 during the NHL Awards ceremony at T-Mobile Arena.
Leigh Ann Robinson (D)
Sharolta Nonen (D)
Sara Larsson (D)