WNBA free agency: Key dates, best players available on the open market

The 2024 WNBA season was the biggest and most important in league history. Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese helped bring newfound popularity and tons of new fans to the sport during their rookie seasons, and A'ja Wilson kept those fans intrigued with what was one of the best individual seasons in league history. En route to taking home the MVP award, Wilson became the first player ever with more than 1,000 points (1,021) in a single season. With the season over and the offseason picking up, everyone is now intrigued about how WNBA free agency will go, especially considering the expansion Golden State Valkyries are joining the league.

There are a number of big-name superstars hitting the open market, and in this article, we are going to detail everything that you need to know about the 2025 crop of WNBA free agents.

WNBA free agency key dates

Jan. 11-20:

Starting on Jan. 11, teams can extend qualifying offers to core-eligible or reserved players. WNBA teams are allowed to designate one player as a “core player,” and this basically works like the NFL's franchise tagging system. When players are cored, their previous team has exclusive negotiating rights, and the player is automatically offered a one-year supermax contract.

Jan. 21:

Jan. 21 will start the negotiation period for WNBA free agency. This is when teams can talk to players and agree upon deals with anybody, but no one can put pen to paper and make anything official yet.

Feb. 1:

Deals can be made official on Feb. 1. Nothing is finalized, including the agreed-upon deals during the negotiation period, until Feb. 1. Then, players will officially agree to deals with new or old teams.

Best players on the open market

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Below is every 2025 WNBA free agent. This isn't necessarily a ranking of the players hitting the open market, but instead, the players are ordered in terms of how big their average annual value was in their last deal. Unrestricted free agents (UFA) are free to sign anywhere, while restricted free agents (RFA) are players with four years of experience who were extended a qualifying offer by their last team. RFAs can sign offer sheets with any team, but their previous team has the chance to match any deal. If a new contract isn't agreed to, then RFAs will sign for the qualifying offer. There are also exclusive restricted free agents (ERFA), which are players with less than two years of service time whose contracts have expired. Qualifying offers for ERFAs are one-year deals worth the minimum, and they must sign this deal with their old team or sit out the following season.

UFA: