ESPN dropped its fantasy hockey sleepers and busts column this week and I wait for this thing every September. Sleepers and busts lists are where the real draft equity lives. Rankings just tell you the consensus. Sleepers and busts tell you where the consensus might be wrong.

And that's the fun part, right? Every league has that person who drafts purely off last year's point totals, and every league has the person who reaches two rounds early on a name they recognize. The sleeper/bust conversation is how you beat both of them.

The piece runs through players being drafted too early, guys going too late, and ESPN even flags a trend running through the list this year, which I won't spoil because their writers earned the click. But the general shape tracks with what I've been seeing in my own drafts: people are still paying for 2024-25 stories in a 2026 world, and goalies, as always, are the most chaotic position on the board.

You know my goalie philosophy by now. Late-round fliers on netminders are the best value in all of fantasy sports. I'd rather grab a guy whose upside story is still being written than pay a fourth-rounder for a safe floor that one groin injury erases by November. The sleeper goalies in this column are the ones I'm circling in every league.

On the bust side, I'll say the quiet part: a bust isn't a bad player. It's a good player at a bad price. That distinction matters. The draft is about value relative to where you take someone, and nailing that gap is the whole game.

One thing I'll keep repeating, because Dave made me promise to be fair about this: the model-y stuff is a tiebreaker, never the final voice. ESPN's read here is informed, but your league mates are irrational and your league's platform ADP is its own weird ecosystem. Cross-check where these guys are actually going in YOUR drafts before you reach.

Still. This is the article that wins people leagues in October. Read it before your draft, not after.