For this to happen Marleau would have to be traded and bought out prior to the new league year so Ottawa would still be on the hook for 4.5M in real money and that's a no go for Ottawa.

https://www.capfriendly.com/buyout-faq

check buyouts outside of the regular period. It's still possible. ex. Troy Brouwer was bought out on Aug 2 last year.

Special circumstance if an arbitration award puts them over the cap and that with Ottawa is about as unlikely as pigs flying.

Any thoughts on the trades value wise?

Yeah now that I looked into it, it's unlikely. However, his cap hit will still be 6.25, and real money is only 4.5 so ottawa can get to the floor without paying as much as is required (if that makes any sense). Since obviously Ottawa wants to pay as little money as possible. Even if you can't do it with Ottawa, you could look at a team like montreal(they did this with Mason) or any other teams with large amount of cap space who would trade money for assets.

Hey yeah I mean the Brown trade is possible and it's good enough value though they'd probably look for a 2nd for him.

Would love that Zaitsev trade to happen though I don't think Vancouver would go for that deal.