We’ve been holding our breath for quite a while in NWSL land. It took absolutely ages for Sacramento to formally rule themselves out of expansion contention, and the waiting game clearly delayed moves that teams around the league have been waiting to make. With the draft coming up soon and with not a ton of time left for top players to decide to register or not, the Portland Thorns are pushing their chips on the table and making it known that they are in the game for a trade for the #1 pick in the NWSL draft.
This coming NWSL draft has been dominated by talk of the players who aren’t registering.