I reckon there's only a very short window for a young player to step up to Championship standard; maybe less than a season. When a player is good enough, like Fry, Tav, Hackney it is immediately apparent they they have made some sort of jump in ability and have what it takes. You get players like Coburn who might make the grade but stuff happens, usually injuries or a loss of form at just the wrong time that prevents them from kicking on.
It's possible Kavanagh has had that jump in his ability in the last few months. Thing is, there also needs to be a match between the team and player. I think the nearest equivalent to Kavanagh in the first team is Forss. Both players don't do much up front except score goals and we've seen that the second Carrick had a replacement for Forss that Forss never got a sniff of being centre forward again, even when he was the only fit one we had. See also Muniz last season; Carrick would have rather put 10 players out then put Muniz on the pitch. So I don't see Carrick turning to Kavanagh ever. Same with Hoppe. They don't seem to have what he wants in a centre-forward.