Option 2:

I think that even though his stats and overall production slowed a bit as the season went on, Marek Carda did slightly improve. Throughout the first half of the season, he was near the front of the pack for all rookies in terms of PDO and this was reflected in his scoring output. Over the latter half of the season, the PDO began to drop as expected, along with shooting percentage, and his offensive output went with it. However, this is still a very young player in his first season in the league. He proved in Detroit that he’s a playoff performer, having been nominated for the Brodie Witzel during their s74 cup run. Additionally, his coaches have been glowing in the way he’s improved his game throughout the season, especially in terms of the strength and skating needed to compete against full on adults in the SHL. It shouldn’t be a surprise to see Carda regain a bit of his mojo in time for the playoffs when the games really matter and step up to help his team – hopefully producing numbers more like what we saw in the first half of his rookie season, rather than the latter. The one thing going against him here is that there are no easy games come playoff time, and he’ll be facing mature and skilled competition on his shifts more regularly, competing against the strongest teams. No matter how it shakes out, it should be a good learning experience for the rookie.