Not. Even. Close.

What else? Poehling?

These are B prospects. Hertl is our top line C in his prime on a good contract. Not close.

1 year left though. If your expecting a Trocheck return, he had two years remaining.

Hertl is much better than Trocheck. Also Hertl isn’t even rumored to be on the block. He’s a top line C on your team and you don’t send a bag of literal poop and get a top line C in his prime in return, dream world man. Go after Dvorak with that lol

Doug Wilson said it would take a ‘mind blowing’ offer to get Hertl. This ain’t it.

He'd probably get a 1st and a B prospect as a rental.
Dauphin adds no value here.
The 2nd and the 3rd are if he comes with an extension.
Honestly not too bad value wise.

You could probably swap the 1st for a better prospect. Making it two prospects a 2nd and a 3rd, but the net value is about the same.

We know Habs position is desperation. No one is selling their top Cs for nothing to a clearly desperate and disgusting franchise. You want Hertl? Send a 1st, two 2nds and Romanov to start the conversation.

We're talking about reasonable expectation of return. Coming to a reasonable valuation isn't likely when emotion is involved.
Objectively, the 3 picks and a prospect is a decent return. You might be able to leverage the situation to get a specific piece which otherwise wouldn't be available, but there's a point where the price means you walk away.
Romanov might be possible, but he'd at least replace the 1st. (But doesn't SJ have a good pool of D prospects?)

We have no reason to move Hertl. Not to mention he has a 3 team trade list that I highly doubt MTL is on. He's the most popular player so the organization risks a TON in moving him, not just the on-ice product but the off ice too. MTL is clearly desperate to replace KK. SJ has all the upper hand here so it's not going to go in your favor, it's clearly in SJ's favor. Honestly Habs could do much better going after Dvorak but with Hertl, you're going to have to pay up or it won't work (if Hertl even accepts the trade, which is doubtful)

This is all hypothetical. There are things to note, but a discussion can still be had, otherwise what's the point?
IF a trade can happen, what might it look like? That's all this is.

And I am telling you what can't be had.

What can be had is an overpayment by mtl