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The 2025-26 season is just around the corner, and there’s never been a better time to play ESPN Fantasy Hockey. Whether you’re a new player or a grizzled vet, there is much to get excited about and plenty of resources to help with drafting your team and setting up your league.

Build your strategy, draft your team, and set your lineups daily or weekly as you play against other teams week after week to raise your own fantasy hockey cup.

Resources: Projections | Mock draft | Rankings | Live draft results | Injuries | Stats

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If you read only one fantasy hockey story, read this one: your guide to draft, play and win your league like an expert.

Have the top pick in the draft? These six players are deserving of going No. 1 overall, which one will you draft?

The ideal draft board? Here is the right pick to make at each spot in the first two rounds.

Sleepers exceed their draft slot. Busts play below expectation. Here are players to draft or pass on based on their current rank.

Which players should to target in every draft? Here’s Greg Wyshynski’s cheat sheet to his favorite draft picks.

Struggling with late-round picks? Sean gives you a reason to draft twelve players available in the 20th round or later.

Go deeper than rankings with tier lists, and have a backup plan when your favorite player gets picked just before your turn

Draft tier lists: Forwards | Defensemen

What you need to know before you draft your goalies

Let’s look at the numbers to predict which players are the right candidates to exceed career-bests

Breakout picks: Forwards | Defensemen

Playing H2H categories or Roto leagues? Here are the category specialists to give you the edge

Playing in a four-team league? Not sure when to draft Matthew Tkachuk? Here’s how the experts mock drafted, and their biggest draft insights.

Which teams have a No. 1 starter and which use a tandem? Here are the goalies to draft from each timeshare.

Who should you draft, or avoid, at current draft spot?

Here are 12 rookies to know, whether you’re in a redraft or keeper league.

Who steps up for the Florida Panthers with Matthew Tkachuk and Aleksander Barkov out?


The 2025-26 NHL season starts on October 7.


What’s going on around the league? Here are the biggest stories to watch as each team opens training camp

Predicting which players are ready to take a leap forward.

Have the best fantasy hockey team name at your draft with ideas and advice from “The Drop” host Arda Öcal

Bored with the same league year after year? Here are seven ways to make your fantasy hockey league more exciting

Keeper or dynasty league? We have rankings for that! See how the NHL’s best stack up over the next five years

Offseason recap: Free agent/trade reaction | NHL Draft picks to monitor

Points or categories? Your guide to every kind of fantasy league offered at ESPN and why you should try them all

Forgot last year already? Fantasy hockey awards | Leading scorers | What we learned


Download the ESPN Fantasy Sports app and have every player right at your fingertips. Available on the App Store and Google Play.


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Wisconsin QB O’Neil carted off with leg injury

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Wisconsin QB O'Neil carted off with leg injury

MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin quarterback Danny O’Neil was carted off the field and into the locker room after injuring his leg in the first quarter of the Badgers’ game against No. 24 Washington (No. 23 College Football Playoff) on Saturday.

O’Neil got up at the end of a 21-yard keeper, limped and then went back down and clutched his right leg. Wisconsin announced in the second quarter that O’Neil would miss the rest of the game with what was officially ruled a lower-body injury.

The San Diego State transfer was making his first start since a Sept. 13 loss to Alabama, though he had played in a reserve role Sept. 20 against Maryland and Oct. 18 against Ohio State.

Freshman Carter Smith took over for O’Neil and made his college debut Saturday.

Quarterback issues have hindered Wisconsin throughout the season. Billy Edwards Jr. was Wisconsin’s first-team quarterback at the start of the year, but he sprained his knee in the second quarter of the Badgers’ season opener and has played only one full series since.

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Ohio St. WR Tate sits out with undisclosed injury

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Ohio St. WR Tate sits out with undisclosed injury

Ohio State standout receiver Carnell Tate sat out Saturday’s game against Purdue after suffering a minor undisclosed injury during pregame warmups.

Coach Ryan Day said the Buckeyes held Tate out just as a precaution.

“[Tate] wanted to play,” Day said, “but we’ve got a lot of football ahead us.”

The top-ranked Buckeyes (9-0, 6-0 Big Ten) still defeated Purdue 34-10 to remain unbeaten. Jeremiah Smith led Ohio State with a career-high 10 receptions for 137 yards and a touchdown.

This season, Tate has 39 receptions for 711 receiving yards and 7 touchdowns.

The Buckeyes play UCLA next weekend.

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Texas Tech hands BYU 1st loss, improves to 9-1

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Texas Tech hands BYU 1st loss, improves to 9-1

LUBBOCK, Texas — Stone Harrington kicked a school-record five field goals and standout Texas Tech linebacker Jacob Rodriguez had two takeaways as the No. 9 Red Raiders defeated No. 8 BYU 29-7 on Saturday, holding the previously undefeated Cougars to a season-low 255 total yards in a game with Big 12 and playoff implications.

Behren Morton passed for 216 yards and threw a 9-yard touchdown to Caleb Douglas while Cameron Dickey ran for 121 yards and a 1-yard score for Texas Tech (9-1, 6-1 Big 12, No. 8 CFP), which played in its first top-10 matchup since 2008.

“I told the team we have another gear,” Tech coach Joey McGuire said. “We can play better.”

BYU (8-1, 5-1, No. 7 CFP) had never played in such a game, though the teams could meet again in the Big 12 championship game in four weeks in Arlington, Texas.

Harrington kicked field goals of 47, 39, 34, 29 and 27 yards.

Rodriguez, the FBS leader with seven forced fumbles, had an interception midway through the third period leading to Harrington’s fourth field goal. He recovered a backward pass late in the fourth quarter that set up Harrington’s final kick.

Tech has gone from ranking 121st last season in the FBS allowing 34.8 points per game to fifth at 13.2 going into Saturday and lowering that to 12.6.

“Yeah, we are a better [defensive] team than we were last year,” Rodriguez said. “But … we’ve still got a lot of things to clean up.”

BYU snapped a 10-game winning streak dating back to last season. The Cougars avoided their first shutout since 2017 when Bear Bachmeier threw a 6-yard touchdown pass to Chase Roberts midway through the fourth quarter.

The Cougars went into the game third in the FBS in turnover margin at plus-1.25. They lost two fumbles, threw an interception and muffed a punt.

Bachmeier was 23-of-38 passing for 188 yards. The true freshman also had two turnovers, an interception and a backward pass for a fumble.

“A couple of passes and a muffed punt cost us, I think, 13 points,” BYU coach Kalani Sitake said. “Even after that, I thought we were going to be able to respond and make a game of it in the second half, but we weren’t able to do that.”

The Cougars went into play averaging 36.3 points and 434 yards per game. Their previous low offensive output this season was 332 yards in the 27-3 win over Stanford on Sept. 6.

Both teams have home games remaining against UCF, while the Cougars also play at No. 25 Cincinnati — the only other Big 12 team with one league loss — after hosting TCU next week. The Red Raiders host UCF next week before an open date and then their regular-season finale at West Virginia.

The Red Raiders, charter members of the Big 12 in 1996, are in position to play in the conference championship for the first time. Their remaining two opponents are a combined 3-10 in conference play.

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