Taking the right players in the early rounds of a fantasy draft is important, but who you select in the mid-to-late rounds often defines your team’s success. Having good sleepers on your radar is an important tool for the latter stages of the draft, but before we dive into who you should have on your sleeper list, we should first define what we’re talking about when we say “sleeper.”
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What a sleeper is might seem obvious to many sports fans, but the term gets a little vaguer when you have to explain the difference between a sleeper and a breakout candidate — which is important in this case because we also have a breakout candidate article.
While there can certainly be some crossover, in general, a breakout candidate is set to reach new heights, usually for the first time in their career, while a sleeper might have already demonstrated what he’s capable of, but for one reason or another, he’s lagged expectations for a meaningful time.
Aaron Ekblad, D, Florida Panthers
Taken with the No. 1 overall pick in 2014, Ekblad has had an interesting career. In terms of raw offensive output, he’s never reached the heights of Victor Hedman, Roman Josi or Cale Makar. In fact, he’s only surpassed the 40-point mark twice in his 10-year career, though he excelled in 2021-22 with 15 goals and 57 points in 61 contests. More recently, he was limited to 18 points in 51 regular-season appearances last year due to injury and because he was playing a more defensive role with somewhat limited power-play responsibilities.
However, with Brandon Montour and Oliver Ekman-Larsson gone, Florida might ask Ekblad to serve on the top power-play unit and shift to a more offensive mindset. If he can stay healthy, which has been a recurring issue for Ekblad, he has the potential to make this one of his best campaigns.
Patrik Laine, LW, Montreal Canadiens
Laine was taken with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2016 NHL Draft behind Auston Matthews, and in the early days, it looked like that was going to make for quite the rivalry. Both are superb goal scorers, but while Matthews has reached the 60-goal milestone twice, including his 69-goal 2023-24 campaign, Laine has provided under 30 markers in each season since 2018-19. Inconsistency has been a problem for Laine, as have injuries. Still, he’s not too old at 26, and he’s…