Kotka skating is actually not a concern to me at all anymore. Had a better viewing of him recently, I think it got a bit overblown because people kept hearing his strides looked a bit choppy, but I would say he actually has very good speed, his technic simply needs a bit a work; wouldn't surprise me if he turns out to be a fast skater at the NHL level once his skating gets more fluid and gain muscle leg strength. I used to consider his skating as a deficiency in his game (mostly based on what I heard), but now that's not a concern to me anymore, he seems like the complete package. On that basis, that may explain why people kept pointing at his skating; when discussing of a player you always end up identifying the player strengths/weaknesses, but since Kotka doesn't really have any major holes in his game, (remember that people had to justify why he kept on being ranked around 20th overall at the time), people pointed at his skating which looked a bit awkward at times because even though it wasn't really a weakness people needed something to critic him on.
Not the first time I see this pattern happening, when a player has a complete game, the player often end up being associated with a flaw unjustifiably, it gets picked on by the community and everyone comes to identify the player with that said weakness and it becomes overblown. Bad: Skating, IQ, defensive game, compete or too small; sometimes players don't enter in any of those categories, no need to force it.
All in all, he definitely deserves to be in the discussion for 3rd overall imo.
