The following is a list of drafts held by National Women's Soccer League, with a brief description of each.
Preseason 2013 (inaugural)
2013 NWSL College Draft: Held January 18 at the annual NSCAA convention, this year in Indianapolis, the draft allowed all eight teams to draft four players who had completed their college eligibility. While they had originally announced that the draft would be in snake format with randomly determined order, NWSL announced several days before the draft that the order would be the same in each of the four rounds, with the order semi-randomly determined with weighting based on evaluation of the allocation results.
2013 NWSL Supplemental Draft: After a limited free agency period, NWSL pooled remaining players who were identified by the teams to be distributed via draft. Each team submitted 8-10 player names to the draft pool, with players picked over six rounds.
2013 Preseason Waiver Draft: Players who were waived by their teams were available for other teams to pick up. Of the 6 players available, only Lauren Alkek was selected by Western New York.
Offseason 201314
2013 Postseason Waiver Draft: Players who were waived by their teams were available for other teams to pick up. Of the 11 players available, only Nikki Marshall was selected by Washington.
2015 Postseason Waiver Wire: Players who were waived by their teams were available for other teams to pick up. Originally announced for October 12, the Waiver Wire process was delayed to October 21–22, presumably to allow for the October 20 announcement of expansion with the Orlando Pride, who were granted top tie-break in the process. Of the 8 players available, all from non-playoff teams, only Brittany Bock was selected by Chicago.
2016 NWSL Distribution Draft: Players who were no longer allocated and whose former teams did not offer a new contract were made available in the Distribution Draft, held on March 31. Of the nine players whose NWSL rights were available, only Verónica Pérez and Arianna Romero were selected, both by Seattle Reign FC.
Offseason 201617
2016 Postseason Re-Entry Wire: Players who were waived by their teams, or whose contracts were allowed to lapse, were available for other teams to pick up on the re-entry wire on October 19. Of the 13 players available, the only player selected was Sinead Farrelly, who was left on the wire by the Boston Breakers and selected by Seattle Reign FC.
