That's all understandable and fair.
From a Blues perspective, Hofer would HURT to part with. Are you seeing the season he's having and how strong his puckhandling skills are? Blues fans will tell you, the goaltending has been the team's strong point and the reason they are in 16 and not right with Montreal at 5-7 range. We would part with Hofer in only a deal that got us "something we need"
I'm hearing Montreal has the deepest pool in the league but it is missing high end offense prospects. Blues are the mirror image, have Lindstein who had a fantastic WJC and looks strong but otherwise could use at least one more high end defenseman.
Bolduc being offered up in this context for a Montreal young defenseman prospect is not "hey we're sour on Bolduc here ya go" it's balancing the prospect pool a bit, one team's unbalance for another. It is definitely not motivated by him being French Canadian although I am aware that people do that. I am offering him because he's NHL-able right now and because we have Neighbours who is a true identity cornerstone player for the Blues who they cannot move, plus other near term forward reinforcements from other recent first rounders (Snuggerud, Dvorsky, Stenberg, Dean) plus some damn good looking mid round picks (Pekarcik and Stancl). It's moving from a strength. You have to pay to play and I know that, so I want to clarify this is how I'm paying.
I'm not saying Hofer isn't having a great season or doesn't have great upside, I'm saying that Montreal's looking to address their goaltending internally right now. They literally just carried 3 goalies all season until the deadline because they refused to lose Primeau on waivers and wanted to keep Montembault. Primeau's game continues to grow and they have a number of interesting goalie prospects (none more than Fowler who is having a fantastic D+1 season). I just don't think its an area that they're all that interested in improving in immediately given that Montreal's goaltending has been fine, while their forward depth hasn't.
And that's fine about St. Louis' prospect pool, but unless we're talking about Snuggerud or Dvorsky type, then its not really addressing Montreal's need for high end offensive prospects. Montreal has good forward prospects like Roy, Beck, Mesar, Farrell, etc. plus under 25 forwards in Suzuki, Caufield, Dach and Newhook. If Montreal's not improving on the quality they have, they wont be interested.
If you want a higher end D prospect/young D, its going to cost someone you think the Blues "cannot move" because you're asking for someone the other team thinks the same about. Bolduc isn't going to cut it for Montreal or another team.
If you're talking about less regarded D prospects/ young D, its confirmed Montreal has those guys available, but it doesn't sound like that's what you're looking for.