Great thoughts. I wouldn't buy out Marleau though...unless he requires it... I'd play him until the TDL and flip him. He's a vet and still a good player. He'll have value @ the TDL. It would be awesome to put the Otters back together again!

He'd only waive to go to Chicago for a buy-out. He wants to go back out to the West coast, so we'd essentially take the cap hit and a team like San Jose could sign him for cheap.

There have been a few older players that like Chicago as a "retirement" destination though (Sharp, Kunitz, Campbell), so we could end up retaining him on the roster.

I don't think, this is how it works. So Chi should just take $6.2M hit and have nothing for it? wow, if this is the case the trade should include more.
Looks like the hypothetical hit on Johnsson will be at around $10M first year and we also have to give Perlini and 4th pick? wow this not a good trade. Unless Bowman has a huge bowner for AJ.

There's nothing else the Blackhawks would want to spend money on this year. They'd just have some odd $10m in cap space.

They can't commit to any big fish in FA because of DeBrincat and Strome needing extensions in 2020. It's using their cap space to acquire a premium asset at a reduced cost.

And obviously, the Marleau and Callahan cap hits go away next year.

And I'm not opposing this scenario. I'm simply saying we can get more. Marleau and Johnsson for 3rd rounder should suffice. CHI had to give up Taravainen for serviceable Bickel with only $4M hit for 2nd rounder. If CHI has to eat $6.2 and Marleau will not even play, its def should be comped a little better. AJ is good player but he is not Taravainen, plus you can hypothetically offer sheet him for 2nd rounder (at say $4.2M), no need to take Marleau. Taking Marleau and AJ at $3.7 for 3 years will average out to about $5.8M. Not a good deal. (not even mentioning Perlini who should be 20 goal scorer himself)