Zandalasini was the lone Minnesota Lynx player selected in the WNBA’s Expansion Draft on Dec. 6, joining the Golden State Valkyries as it enters the league as the 13th team in 2025.
After a groundbreaking WNBA season in 2024, another historic moment took place early in an offseason that has been flooded with news and changes ever since the WNBA Finals wrapped up in October.
The WNBA held its first expansion draft on Friday, officially welcoming the Golden State Valkyries into the league as its 13th team. The expansion draft was the first in the WNBA since 2008, and is also the first of two straight offseasons we will see an expansion draft take place with another one taking place next year.
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Ahead of the draft, each of the 12 existing teams in the league could protect up to six players on their roster that they would restrict Golden State from selecting. Those players names weren’t required to be made public prior to the draft. Of the players left unprotected, the Valkyries got to pick one player from each of the 12 teams, while also only being able to select one unrestricted free agent in total.
As the names began to fall, the Minnesota Lynx soon found out which player would be departing Minnesota and joining Golden State in 2025: Cecilia Zandalasini.
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It was a bit of a surprise that Zandalasini was selected by Golden State, given the talent elsewhere on Minnesota’s roster and young players like Dorka Juhász, Diamond Miller and Alissa Pili available (if they were not protected). But the Valkyries focused on international talent in their selections in the draft, and Zandalasini is near the top of the list of international players in the league.
The 28-year-old concluded her third season in the WNBA in 2024, her second season playing in more than five games. She first appeared in Minnesota in 2017, playing with the Lynx in 2017 and 2018 before a five-year absence from the league while remaining overseas. In 2024, the sharp-shooter returned to the Lynx and the WN, appearing in all 40 games while providing Minnesota with a nice shooting threat off the bench. In 12.2 minutes per contest, she averaged 4.6 points, 1.2 rebounds and 1.1 assists while shooting 45.3% from deep and 44.3% from three.
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Zandalasini is a talent that can without a doubt help out a WNBA squad, and she will get the chance to do so in Golden State. Her ability to shoot, move the ball, stretch the floor and provide a spark either off the bench or as a starter are valuable traits. Plus, she is still young and in her prime, turning just 29 years old next March.
Another thing that might have been attractive for Golden State by selecting Zandalasini is the flexibility it give the franchise salary cap wise — especially given the fact free agency is right around the corner. Zandalasini enters this offseason as a reserved free agent, but the Valkyries hold exclusive negotiating rights to her.
Zandalasini will be missed from the Lynx second unit, especially her ability to boost the team from deep, but this was one of the best outcomes for Minnesota when it comes to the talent that it might have thought it would lose to Golden State in the expansion draft.
Players Selected in WNBA Expansion Draft
- Kate Martin (Las Vegas)
- Kayla Thornton (New York)
- Iliana Rupert (Atlanta)
- María Conde (Chicago)
- Veronica Burton (Connecticut)
- Carla Leite (Dallas)
- Temi Fagbenle (Indiana)
- Stephanie Talbot (Los Angeles)
- Cecilia Zandalasini (Minnesota)
- Julie Vanloo (Washington)
- Monique Billings (Phoenix)
*Golden State elected to not select a player from the Seattle Storm