Currently, Yahoo Public Leagues (both Prize & Free) have their playoffs run for the final 3 weeks of the NHL regular season. Unfortunately this is quite problematic, due to how during the final week of the season, many teams rest their star players once they've clinched playoff spots. This means during the final week of Fantasy playoffs, there's an imbalance due to players being rested/listed as DTD or OUT last minute, and managers often missing 8-10+ games in the week just from this issue. For example, today (April 13, 2026), the Minnesota Wild are resting 9/18 regular skaters, almost all of which are the star players that would be on active fantasy rosters.

What most private leagues do is start fantasy playoffs one week earlier, so that they end the second last week of the NHL regular season instead of the final week. This way, it's very rare to see players rested and not playing, reducing the unfair advantages that can be had by this unpredictable variable. Sure it makes the season ultimately one week shorter, but when you are competing with money and cash prizes involved, the fantasy season should strive to maintain equality amongst all managers where possible.