I'm sure he did, as would many that watched a 6'5 smooth skating blueliner that moved the puck well. The problem is that he didn't work hard enough and he admitted that. But we are talking about a 20th overall pick, not a 3rd overall pick. Look at Timmins picks inside the top 10. Price, Sergachev, Galchenyuk. Each time he got highly skilled players that were among the very best players in the draft. Now maybe this year is different since the 3 to say 10 or 12 were ranked very closely so this year clearly your odds of getting the best at 3 aren't as high as they would be in other years when they aren't so tightly ranked.
First of all, he's 6'3''. Second, no, I don't think many thought he had 1D potential; he was projected to go in the 2nd and even 3rd round by some scouts and publications. There were red flags from the beginning with that pick, chief among them: he was playing on a high school team.
Back to Kotkaniemi; he was more of a reach than any of those top-10 Habs picks you listed. In fact, the only one who could be considered somewhat of a reach was Price, and look what happened there. Kopitar should have been the pick, not just in hindsight either, lots of people thought so at the time. Reaches usually don't work out, and the team who does it usually gets burned. Scheifele worked out great, but who else lately? The list of unsuccessful reaches is long and sad. Like I said, I think the Habs were influenced by the media with this pick, and this draft as a whole. That's not how you run a franchise. The Habs front office has no idea what they are doing, so excuse me for being skeptical about a reach pick in the top-3.
