Not sure why should we bother
I meant if Sharks end up giving him, say, $3M, then that would mean we could have waited till after July 1, paid 1.5M bonus, and traded him to Carolina to retain 50% and send him to the Sharks. That way, Carolina is covering $3M of cap and ~$1.4M of real dollars, and maybe we only give up a second, or give up a first but get a second back.
Obviously, Sharks weren't ready to commit to Marleau at the time because they were still hoping to sign Pavelski, and Dubas was smart not to take the chance that there would be a way to move him post-buyout period. So it makes sense, just bugs me how thins worked out even if it shouldn't.
(And probably also bothers me that a guy who has made about 100M and played at replacement level last year can walk into another (hypothetical at this point) 3M contract, while a guy like Trevor Moore maybe makes that in his whole career.)