Predators' Laviolette laments loss of 'difference-maker' in Fiala
Kevin Fiala may not be a household name, but his playoff-ending injury is significant for the Nashville Predators.
Selected 11th overall in 2014, the 20-year-old winger had been brought along slowly by the Predators, and was just now starting to live up to the potential seen in him on draft day.
Related: Predators' Fiala out for remainder of playoffs with fractured femur
"(Fiala's) gone through a process where he finally had some stick and was a guy that we were counting on," head coach Peter Laviolette said Thursday, per Robby Stanley of NHL.com. "He was now on a power play, he was now in the top-six mix, he was now taking down 16 or 17 minutes a night and he's earned that. He's worked hard, he loves the game, works hard at it in practice."
Laviolette pointed to Fiala's overtime winner in Game 3 against the Chicago Blackhawks as a prime example of how far he's come.
"He wants to get better, and it was getting to a point where he really was a difference-maker with the puck on his stick, as you saw in that overtime goal in the first round," Laviolette said. "It was a really, really nice play and a patient play. It's unfortunate for an accident like that to happen on the ice."
It appears as though Colin Wilson, who scored in Game 1 against St. Louis, will take Fiala's place on a line with Mike Fisher and James Neal, at least to start.
Fiala, meanwhile, will begin rehabilitating the injury in hopes of being ready to pick up where he left off next season.