Earth without art is just eh

Reports are that Arizona wants a "blue-chip prospect" in exchange for taking on Marleau's salary. You're going to have to do a lot better than Brown if you want Arizona to take on Marleau's contract.

they wanted a good player/asset. Brown can get you 20 goals with the right centre and ice time.

I'm sure that's true. However, he's not nearly enough incentive for Arizona to take Marleau with no retention and no bad contracts going back to Toronto. By specifying such a limited selection of teams to which he will accept a trade (LA, Anaheim, Arizona, Colorado), Marleau has all but eliminated Dubas's bargaining power. The Leafs essentially have two choices:

1. Trade Marleau to a team like LA that will take him off your hands in exchange from taking a longer-term, lower cap hit, "bad" contract back (Carter, Phaneuf, Kovalchuk w/ retention) without having to give up anything significant.

2. Trade Marleau without retention to Arizona with no bad contracts returned in exchange for a quality prospect like Sandin or Bracco or a 1st round draft pick.