Allie Quigley and Courtney Vandersloot are each returning to the Chicago Sky on one-year deals, the team confirmed Thursday. The move reunites the married couple and longtime teammates after they helped lead the Sky to their first WNBA championship last season.

Quigley’s fully-protected deal is worth $135,000, while Vandersloot’s is also fully protected for $195,000, sources tell Just Women’s Sports.

With Quigley and Vandersloot locked in, the Sky enter the 2022 season with their entire starting five from the 2021 WNBA Finals under contract.

Quigley, the No. 22 pick of the Seattle Storm in the 2008 draft, bounced around the WNBA — Phoenix, Indiana, San Antonio and back to Seattle — and overseas leagues before settling in with the Sky in 2013. The Illinois native and DePaul grad revived her career with the Sky and has been integral to the team’s success during her nine seasons.

A three-time WNBA All-Star, two-time Sixth Woman of the Year and three-time champion of the 3-Point Contest, Quigley has averaged 12 points and 2.1 assists per game to go along with 40 percent shooting from the 3-point line during her time in Chicago.

Vandersloot has been with the Sky since they drafted her third overall out of Gonzaga in 2011. The point guard, who’s led the league in assists for five consecutive seasons, also holds the all-time WNBA records for the most assists in a season (300), the most assists in a game (18) and the highest assists average in a season (9.1 per game). A three-time All-Star, Vandersloot has averaged 10.1 points and 6.7 assists per game on 44 percent shooting from the field during her 11-year career.

Vandersloot’s decision to return to Chicago comes after a report earlier this month that UMMC Ekaterinburg was considering paying her to sit out the WNBA season. At the time, ESPN’s Holly Rowe reported that the Sky had made Vandersloot a “disrespectful” offer.

The Sky were aggressive early in free agency, placing the core designation on 2021 WNBA Finals MVP Kahleah Copper and later signing her to a multi-year deal. They also agreed to terms with Emma Meesseman, the 2019 Finals MVP with the Washington Mystics, adding skill at the forward position after losing Stefanie Dolson to the New York Liberty in free agency.

Meeseeman gives Chicago another scoring weapon in the frontcourt alongside Candace Parker and Azurá Stevens, while Quigley, Vandersloot and Copper fill out the backcourt. The Sky also addressed their bench depth, acquiring point guard Julie Allemand from Indiana in a three-team trade and signing 2021 No. 4 pick Kysre Gondrezick to a training camp contract.

Rachel Galligan is a basketball analyst at Just Women’s Sports. A former professional basketball player and collegiate coach, she also contributes to Winsidr. Follow Rachel on Twitter @RachGall.

Point guard Courtney Vandersloot has agreed to a one-year deal with the Chicago Sky, according to Mechelle Voepel of ESPN.

The WNBA assists leader for the past four seasons, Vandersloot’s status with the Sky had been in question this offseason. In early February, it was reported that the unrestricted free agent was looking abroad after the Sky made a “disrespectful” offer. Additionally, UMMC Ekaterinburg was reportedly considering paying her to sit out the 2022 WNBA season.

Vandersloot’s return will be key in the Sky’s title defense. Last season, she averaged 10.5 points, 8.6 assists, 3.4 rebounds and 1.7 steals for the WNBA champions.

She was even better in the 2021 playoffs, averaging 13.0 points, 10.2 assists and 5.4 rebounds. In the Sky’s semifinal series against the Connecticut Sun, she posted just the second triple-double in WNBA playoff history, with 12 points, 18 assists and 10 rebounds in the win.

Vandersloot has spent the entirety of her 11-year WNBA career with the Sky.

Her return is a sigh of relief for many as other key players from the championship team have departed in the offseason. Stefanie Dolson signed with the New York Liberty while Diamond DeShields was traded to Phoenix. The Sky acquired Julie Allemand in that deal, and they have also signed Emma Meeseman to a contract.

Chicago Sky star point guard Courtney Vandersloot is reportedly looking elsewhere after the Sky made her a “disrespectful offer,” according to ESPN’s Holly Rowe.

The news was later confirmed by Annie Costabile of the Sun-Times, who added that UMMC Ekaterinburg is pursuing the option of paying the star to sit out of the 2022 WNBA season.

Vandersloot is an unrestricted free agent this offseason after helping the Chicago Sky to the 2021 WNBA Championship – the franchise’s first.

She was a key factor in the Sky’s final run, posting just the second triple-double in WNBA Playoff history in the Sky’s semifinal series against the Connecticut Sun. With 18 assists, she also set a new single-game playoff assists record, passing Sue Bird.

During the regular season, Vandersloot averaged 10.5 points, 8.6 assists and 3.4 rebounds per game.

Vandersloot has been a member of the Sky since 2011 when she was drafted third overall by the team. A three-time All-Star, she has been the WNBA assists leader six times, including each of the past four seasons. She has also been the WNBA’s peak performer five times.

The Chicago Sky have been active this offseason, placing the core designation on and later signing 2021 Finals MVP Kahleah Copper to a multi-year deal. They have also added 2019 Finals MVP Emma Meesseman to the lineup. But free agent Stef Dolson opted to sign with the New York Liberty on a multi-year contract.

Vandersloot’s wife and teammate, Allie Quigley, is also a free agent this offseason.

Courtney Vandersloot was a force to be reckoned with Tuesday night, posting a triple-double in the Chicago Sky’s 101-95 double-overtime win over the Connecticut Sun.

Vandersloot finished the game with 12 points, 18 assists and 10 rebounds to lead the Sky in Game 1 of the best-of-five semifinal series. She’s just the second player in WNBA history to record a triple-double in the playoffs, after Sheryl Swoopes had the first in 2005.

Swoopes congratulated the point guard on Twitter, calling her “one of the best PGs in the W…EVER!”

Vandersloot also passed Sue Bird for the single-game playoff assists record, matching her own single-game record set during the 2020 regular season.

While Vandersloot underplayed her performance on Tuesday as “just doing my job,” teammate Candace Parker — who led the Sky with 22 points — heaped praise on her point guard.

“I think Sloot’s humble,” Parker said postgame. “But it’s remarkable to do what she did. Defend, rebound, come down and facilitate under pressure. I think sometimes we get spoiled because we see it all the time, the plays she makes. It really has been fun for me just to watch the way she thinks the game and the way she’s always two plays ahead.”

Sky coach James Wade also chimed in, calling it “one of the best point guard games in playoff history.”

“I’m not surprised because this is what she does,” he added.

The Sky will meet the Sun in Game 2 on Thursday at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN2.

The story going into the Chicago Sky’s first-round playoff game against the Dallas Wings on Thursday night was experience versus youth.

Sky players stepped onto the court at Wintrust Arena with over 100 playoff games between them. The Wings, the youngest team in the WNBA, had just four players who had ever been in the postseason.

The Sky, clearly, had been here before. But no one had experienced more games like these in a Sky uniform than Courtney Vandersloot, a staple of Chicago’s backcourt since the team drafted her with the third pick in 2011.

Vandersloot isn’t known for her scoring. The assists leader in the WNBA this year, she holds nearly every league record when it comes to passing. So it was somewhat surprising that of the 26 points the Sky scored in the fourth quarter, Vandersloot had 11 of them, helping seal the team’s 81-64 win over Dallas to advance to play the Minnesota Lynx in the second round Sunday.

“I was being aggressive towards the end of the game and my teammates were finding me,” Vandersloot said. “Things opened up for me late. They’re always harping on me to be aggressive and go for mine, so I showed them that I could do that.”

Vandersloot’s buckets in the fourth quarter were insurance for the Sky, but they were also crucial to putting the Wings away. Chicago led by as many as 19 points in the second quarter while holding Dallas to under 30 percent shooting from the field, but the Wings climbed out of that hole after halftime to get within five.

Arike Ogunbowale kept the Wings nipping at the Sky’s heels late, hitting a 3-pointer with 4:23 left in the fourth quarter to cut their lead to 68-63. The third-year guard led Dallas with 22 points on 5-for-10 shooting from deep in her playoff debut.

Vandersloot’s final stat line (17 points, eight rebounds, six assists) isn’t as flashy, but it was the awareness she showed to go at the rim when the Sky needed it most that impressed her head coach.

“I thought this was a good game for her because a lot of times your name is billed in the playoffs,” said James Wade. “Especially at the end where we were kind of struggling to score and she put the ball in her hands and did some crazy things … I thought it was good for her confidence to know that she’s that type of player.”

The Sky will need Vandersloot to contribute in multiple ways if they’re going to get through the Lynx and to the semifinals for the first time since 2016.

From a team perspective, Candace Parker liked what she saw Thursday night. After the Sky went 2-7 to start this season, losing seven straight games when Parker was sidelined with an injury, and turned things around to earn the sixth seed in the playoffs, the veteran appreciates the small wins, especially at this time of year.

“I loved how we handled adversity tonight. In the past, I don’t know if we would have continued to come together just through the ups and downs of the season,” Parker said. “So I think it’s giving me hope because that’s what the playoffs are, like it’s a game of runs. … Us learning that lesson of what we did right to get the run, but also what we did right to get out of it, I was really proud of that.”

Vandersloot’s uncharacteristic scoring touch helped the Sky hold the Wings’ run at bay. And the passing? That’s not going anywhere.

“She’s done things in this league that nobody has done,” Wade said. “Having these types of games in the playoffs only adds to the legend.”

Courtney Vandersloot made history in Chicago’s statement 105-89 win over the Minnesota Lynx on Tuesday night, becoming the fourth WNBA player to surpass 2,000 career assists.

Vandersloot joins Sue Bird, Ticha Penicheiro and Lindsay Whalen at the top of the all-time assists leaderboard.

When asked about her milestone achievement after the game, Vandersloot took the opportunity to praise her Sky teammates.

“Early on in my career, I learned very quickly that to stay in this league … I was going to have to outwork people,” she said, adding, “I will celebrate it at some point, but it’s really my teammates doing most of the work.”

In 2020, the Chicago guard became the first player in league history to average double-digit assists in a season, dishing out 10 per game.

With more performances like hers on Tuesday, Vandersloot could repeat that feat this season. She’s currently averaging eight assists through 12 games for the Sky.