Just buy him out next year

Sutter was decent devensively, OEL isnt.

OEL has been defencively responcible in the past, just not when paired with Myers

There is no amount you'd get to for a team to want OEL. You'd be better off just buying him out.

Your comments on the top about how it would be better to have him retained at 3.5 for 4 years rather then buy him out is better but I totally disagree. Here is OEL in a buyout.

First year he costs nothing 147k
Second year 2.3 mil
3rd and 4th year 4.8 mil
5th - 8th year 2.1 mil

In the next two years you save 7 million and 5 million while the team is tight against the cap.
Yes years 3 and 4 suck but that's only 1.3 more then your proposal of retaining. Btw the wild almost won the west with 12 million in dead cap so you can win around buyouts.
Here is where the rubber meets the road. Yes 2.1 cap hit for 4 years isn't ideal for for crying out loud its only 2.1 million. Only JT Miller and Hughes are on the books at this point. Surely 5 years from now when the cap is pushing 100 million the Canucks could work around a 2.1 million cap loss.

Per the Athletic player cards, his market value is $4.4 mil, so retain him down to between 4 and 4.5 million and you should be able to find a taker. Its his NMC that is the real kicker.

Edit: sorry, that was last years value, let me try to find this years. This year his contract has a surplus value of -7.8 million, meaning he contibuted as much as a league minimum player. Maybe on his reputation as a defenseman you might be able to move him by retaining 50% without adding picks, but I can't see who specifically would take him. Maybe Los Angeles would take him at 50% for something minor like one of their excess depth RHD guys.

It is an interesting thought. He's not all bad, if there was a team without a power play QB he could fit in that role well. I think they try him in a 3rd pair and rehab his confidence, then if he has a good year you could probably retain

thats a fair point, but the ability to not have him on the books outweighs that, and we can only project the cap, we cant say for sure what it will be, thats up to batman to decide, I also think that out best shot to win would be when the cap hits 4.8M and the 3 years after, that would be almost 21M in lost cap that we would be dealing with for 4 years, I think he could be bought out next summer, but this was more to theorize the idea of trading him and not retaining