Yeah, we’re releasing The Blueprint for the Fire’s off-season after having already talked about one particular outlet of free-agency. So what? We’re loosening the reins here at Rose-Colored Buckets, especially while the Fire aren’t playing. Let’s gab.

The Fire are officially done for 2026. It’s time for them to look ahead, to make plans on how to make their team better.

But how do they make their team better? Who is returning next season? Who can they acquire? How do they go about doing all of this?

Let’s talk it all through here, so we have a strong baseline upon which to make shit up.

Note: This might be a lot of gobbledygook to some readers, so there will be a Too-Long, Didn’t Read section at the bottom that wraps everything up nicely. You can skip ahead, if you want; we only have so much time in our one, precious life.

The Fire have the 2nd most money available to bring in new players in 2027. Only the Connecticut Sun/Houston Comets have more. The Fire have about $3,341,000 promised to players (not all of which is guaranteed, but that’s too fine a comb for us to use today), and the salary cap is projected to be about $8,250,000. That’s $4,900,000 available to use. That’s four max contracts!

The Fire have 7 of their 15 roster spots filled with contracts through 2027. They also have 39.4% of their salary cap committed to those 7 players.

Before we go any further, let’s talk about two exceptions to the above.

Sarah Ashlee Barker tore her ACL in a game, and had successful surgery to repair it on August 5th. Typical basketball returns from this injury take 9-12 months. I think we should be cautious, and only loosely assume that she will be out until August of 2027. That means the Fire need to plan to fill her position and role on the court. It also means that there are likely mechanisms built in to have her salary not count against the team’s salary cap, giving them more flexibility to sign other players.

Iyana Martin was drafted by the Fire in 2026. She is a Spanish professional player, and stayed in Spain this year to train and compete in the FIBA World Cup, where she made the tournament’s All-First Team and won the Rising Star Award. I believe she is expected to play with the Fire in 2027. I am not positive what Iyana’s contract numbers will be like, so I won’t speculate there.

Let’s break this down by player roles, to see if there are positions that the Fire need to fill.

You could make a starting lineup out of that group, but just barely. The Fire have some real work to do to maintain their 2026 levels of success, and hopefully to improve upon their expansion season.

“But what about all of the other players from the 2026 season that I love and want to see again?”

I’m glad you asked.

Here are the 2026 Fire players that are not guaranteed to be on the 2027 roster

Let’s go through these by status:

Restricted Free Agents

These players are not signed for the 2027 season, but the Fire have the “right of first refusal” when these players get offered contracts by other teams. In short, the Fire have the option to re-sign these players before they can go anywhere else. They also have the option to match any offer they get from another team.

Reserved Free Agent

These players are only allowed to sign a low-stakes qualifying offer from their previous team, or negotiate a new contract with their previous team. Other teams may not offer them any contracts. The qualifying offer is one year for the applicable minimum salary. In short, the Fire have the option to re-sign these players before they can go anywhere else.

Unrestricted Free Agents

These players are allowed to meet and negotiate with any team they want. The Fire have no advantage in negotiating with Karlie Samuelson, the team’s only Unrestricted Free Agent, other than potentially showcasing themselves as a team Karlie likes playing for.

Suspended-Contract Expired

These players are essentially the same as Reserved Free Agents. They cannot negotiate with other teams, only their previous one. In short, the Fire have the option to re-sign these players before they can go anywhere else.

Expect Nika Muhl, the Fire’s only Suspended Contract Expired player, to return to the team with a team-friendly salary.

Developmental Players

If these players remain under 3 years of WNBA service, their team can choose to re-sign them to another developmental or standard contract for the following year. In short, the Fire have the option to re-sign these players before they can go anywhere else.

What does all of that mean? Mostly, it means that the Fire have the ability to bring back all but one of their players from 2026 without any other teams getting in the way. That one player is Karlie Samuelson, who should have a good/better season in 2027 after coming back from a big injury to a new team in 2026, so there is value potentially walking out the door.

The other exception to this “the Fire have total control” narrative is Restricted Free Agent Emily Engstler, who I talked about in my Wishcasting the WNBA Semifinals post. While the Fire have the room, financially and roster-ly, to sign Engstler at any salary number, other teams have the option to offer Engstler a big-time contract that might be much more than the Fire are wanting to pay her. That is the only scenario in which Engstler does not return next season, and it’s not impossible.

Ok, there is another scenario in which Engstler isn’t on the roster next season: the Fire, for some reason that I cannot fathom, don’t see her as a fit in their long term plan, and intentionally don’t re-sign her.

There’s one final sure thing for the Fire roster next season: undrafted rookie sensation Jordan Harrison will not be on it. Harrison made the decision to retire from basketball after her exciting rookie season, to focus on other areas of her life. A bummer for fans, but certainly a strong personal decision that we will all support for this woman just getting into her biggest and brightest years.

Ok, with everything laid out, I’m going to lead the charge on some moves that I think will surely happen, so we can fill-out some more roster positions:

Let’s look at the depth chart with these moves written in:

Every other player left on the list is a question mark, for me. They all have value, but the Fire also have aspirations to get better, and they have a lot of roster flexibility. If you want to get better, getting new, better players is a great way to do it, and you can’t add better players if your roster is full.

That said, I would LOVE to hear arguments for why the other players should be brought back, no matter what. Go to war for your girls, y’all.

So, where do the Fire stand? And what kind of player/players do they need to get better?

They start from a good place:

But what do they lack, and need to potentially find elsewhere?

So, how do the Fire go about getting all of these problem solving players?

They will have four methods available to them: 

We did it! Great job, everyone. With all of this out of the way, we can properly start wishcasting in an informed yet still unhinged manner.

I will write about the last three methods in their own entries, here. I’ll list my favorite targets, and a bunch of other possibilities, for free-agency and trades, and then I’ll do a lightly informed primer on the draft, which we will all learn much more about while watching the 2027-2028 college season (I gotta pick a team/players to root for…).

Ok, here’s the TL;DR

Ok, enough words. See y’all next time.