NWSL: Expect the unexpected

The GIST: After a trading frenzy earlier this month, the NWSL Expansion Draft is tomorrow at 7 p.m. ET, and some more big names could be on the move.

How it works: With two teams (Angel City FC and San Diego Wave FC) joining the league in 2022, the expansion draft is an opportunity for these new squads to fill up their rosters with current NWSL talent.

• In regular circumstances, both clubs would choose one player from every NWSL team — excluding the Kansas City Current, who joined the league last season — who isn’t on the teams’ nine-player “protected” list.

• But thanks to the aforementioned flurry of deals, four teams have full roster immunity for tomorrow’s draft and others have partial protection. Paging Jeff Probst.

Expected moves: Of note: While USWNT stars including OL Reign’s Megan Rapinoe and Portland Thorn Becky Sauerbrunn were left “unprotected,” it’s unlikely either southern California expansion team will choose these veterans, as Angel City — who technically can’t select Rapinoe — and San Diego will probably build their teams around young core players.

• But fellow USWNT member Kristie Mewis of the Houston Dash is one of the handful of other stars who might hear their name called tomorrow night. Stay tuned.

Elsewhere: In other women’s soccer news, on Monday the USWNT and U.S. Soccer agreed to extend their collective bargaining agreement (CBA) to March 31st, allowing for negotiations to continue and preventing the players from going on strike. Say it with us now: Pay. The. Women.