It’s not fun to pick out fantasy hockey busts.

You’ll sit down on draft day, cue up your excel spreadsheet, select these guys gleefully, start to daydream about the future and your forthcoming playoff glory, only to have your heart broken by box scores filled with zeroes (the worst kind of box scores).

Fantasy busts are a lot like the first 30 minutes of Wedding Crashers. They promise you this rip-roaring good time of endless musical montages, early morning parties, and Old School-esque entertainment, destined to deliver an experience for the cinematic ages… only to wilt over next hour and a half into a sad, tired, completely expected run of romantic comedy clichés.

You’ll notice that most of the guys on this list are of the “well-known” variety. I tried to avoid including lesser, supporting players, since they aren’t really a “bust” in the traditional sense if very little was expected to begin with.

Here are the six players I’ll be sliding down my draft board this post-season…

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Pavel Datsyuk – Detroit Red Wings

I know, I know. Adding Datsyuk to a “busts” list is akin to admitting you don’t really like puppies (why don’t you like puppies man!?). Firstly, I rather like puppies. They’re uber cute and make for endlessly entertaining youtube videos. Secondly, I absolutely like Datsyuk as a hockey player, but his fantasy value and name recognition are starting to outweigh actual production. Last year he finished with only nine points in 14 games. This season he has battled injuries and inconsistency to finish with only 35 points in 43 games. Is he still an incredible talent? Yes. Is he worthy of a top 15 or 20 pick at age 35? I don’t think so. This year I’d let some other manager gamble on Datsyuk's name in the early rounds.

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Zdeno Chara – Boston Bruins

Here I go, picking on another elder statesmen. Chara has actually had a nice season after a worrisome 2012-13 in which he finished with only 19 points in 48 games (of course it was the lockout season and wacky stuff was happening in terms of scoring – yes, I’m looking at you Mike Ribeiro). This year he has been utilized more offensively, even seeing time in front of the opposing net during power plays. The issue I have with Chara is centered on ice time. He’s already skating almost 25 minutes per game and I would expect that number to push even higher come playoffs. The Bruins will lean on him heavily in all situations and as a result his offence may suffer. Last year’s playoff numbers may be a tad misleading (15 points in 22 games), since the two post-seasons previously he had a combined 12 points in 31 games. Much like Datsyuk he’ll certainly be productive this year, but may not warrant the very early round consideration other poolies will afford him.

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