In an earlier article, I shared my list of players who I felt were in danger of underachieving relative to their average draft position (ADP) in Yahoo leagues, but for each player on that list, I was only arguing that their ADP was too high.
Today, we’re going to turn our attention toward players who you should avoid drafting in a standard 12-team league. Of course, there are tons of players who you wouldn’t consider drafting anyway who could theoretically be included on this list, so to keep things relevant, this article will only address players who have been drafted in at least 75% of Yahoo leagues as of the time of writing.
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Alexandar Georgiev, G, Colorado Avalanche
51.7 ADP, drafted in 100% of leagues
Why fade a goalie who has recorded 78 wins over his past two seasons? Outside of his win total, Georgiev was a frustrating netminder in 20223-24, posting a 3.02 GAA and an .897 save percentage across 63 regular-season contests. Could he rebound? Perhaps, but it will be difficult because Colorado’s offense-first game last year was a meaningful part of the problem for Georgiev, and that’s likely to be true again this season. But he’ll still get plenty of wins, right? Maybe, but there’s already talk of 24-year-old Justus Annunen playing a bigger role this season, which seems justified after the younger netminder outplayed his veteran counterpart in 2023-24.
Georgiev is also entering the final season of his contract and will likely seek a raise that the Avalanche might not be inclined to give him, so Colorado has some invested interest in setting up the younger and cheaper Annunen as the successor. That all adds up to make Georgiev too high-risk in my mind, especially given his ADP.
Frederik Andersen, G, Carolina Hurricanes
84.1 ADP, drafted in 100% of leagues
Similarly to Georgiev, I don’t think Andersen is worth the risk in part due to his ADP. He’s fantastic when healthy, but Andersen has dealt with major injury issues over the past four years, and he’s heading into his age-35 season, so there’s unfortunately little reason for optimism here.
The 25-year-old Pyotr Kochetkov is also coming into his own and should fiercely challenge Andersen for starts even when the veteran netminder is healthy. Goaltending is such a vital…