Kevin Fiala – the Nashville Predators’ first-round pick in 2014 – was assigned to the Milwaukee Admirals of the American Hockey League (AHL) over the weekend. Part of a 23-player roster cut, Fiala’s assignment to the minors quelled talk of the most highly-touted Preds prospect making the team out of training camp.

A former 11th overall selection, Fiala is one of just two Nashville first-rounders in the last five years (Seth Jones was the other in 2013). A lack of first-rounders combined with middle-of-the-pack finishes in league standings in recent years have left the Predators with a largely depleted offense; Alexander Radulov was a surprise addition in 2012, but he returned to the KHL once again at the conclusion of that postseason.

So Fiala’s arrival to the NHL has been highly anticipated since he was drafted last year.

Fiala split the 2014-15 season between HV71 in the SHL and the Admirals. In his 33-game stint with the Admirals, the forward racked up 11 goals and nine assists. Though it may not seem like much, keep in mind that he was just 18 years old throughout the entire season –  CHL prospects are not allowed to play in the AHL until they are around 20 years of age due to developmental reasons, so the fact that he managed to put up 20 points in those 33 games is impressive.

Fiala turned 19 in late July, and he will be getting top-line minutes in Milwaukee this season with a lot more experience under his belt. The knock on his game in his draft year was that while he was very offensively efficient, he was also defensively deficient.

The AHL is the best league for a young player to develop his defensive game, as it is the closest thing to the NHL in terms of playing style and the rinks are more narrow, exactly the same as the NHL standard.

The Swiss winger really proved himself against international competition last year. At the U20 World Junior Championship, he scored four goals and one assist in six games as an alternate captain for Team Switzerland. Then in the spring, he took part in the World Championship, playing both with and against NHL and international professional hockey players.

He contributed a goal and two assists for the Swiss through eight games – a big step for the small-ish teenager (he’s 5’10” and 181 pounds) in proving that he can play against men despite his size.

The Predators had a bit of a logjam on offense during training camp. They cut 11 forwards on Saturday, and they’ll still need to trim the roster by at least a few more.

With some fresh faces like Austin Watson and Viktor Arvidsson, the current Predators roster has much the same forward core as it did last year–but they’ll need far more support than just that top line of Mike Ribeiro, Filip Forsberg and James Neal.

Signing Craig Smith and Colin Wilson in the offseason to their relatively long-term deals made it clear that they too are big parts of this team’s core; however, just like in the 2014 offseason, they signed a few forwards like Steve Moses and Cody Hodgson who they hope can provide supplementary offense at a low cap hit.

In reality, Hodgson in particular is a placeholder. He is not part of the long-term plan (unless he absolutely dominates this year), but rather he is being counted on to fill the void of secondary scoring until Fiala is ready to play in the NHL.

Fiala may get his chance to play for the Predators at some point during the 2015-2016 NHL season, though it is highly likely he will spend the majority of the year in the minors. Chances are he will have one of the best AHL performances this coming season, and it’ll make him all the more ready for full-time NHL play in 2016-17.