Marchenko was waived, went to Toronto, where he was also waived/cleared (ie. all other NHL teams passed on him).
His agent even went on record to say Marchenko wants to play in the NHL again.
You're upset because we moved Alexei Marchenko, a 26 year old D-man who has 7th man upside. I dont see why this even matters. Did Toronto make a mistake as well then? Or what about the other 29 teams that did not put a claim in after TO waived him.
Unlike guys like Pulkkinen, Jurco, Sproul, Mursak Jensen at one point, etc. etc., what happened on waivers isn't really a helpful indicator of what Marchenko's NHL value is/was.
From a technical standpoint, Marchenko never actually cleared
standard waivers. He cleared "Unconditional" waivers, which in his case was the team basically saying, "Hey, this guy has agreed to walk away from his guaranteed NHL salary due to him on his current contract for whatever reason. Anybody willing to take on the rest of the contract he himself has willingly agreed to terminate?". Unless I'm missing something, I can't think of one instance where a player was ever claimed off of "unconditional" waivers. But I think that has more to do with circumstances other than "nobody wants this guy for free".
IIRC, at the time Marchenko was waived by the Red Wings, Toronto was sitting somewhere around mid pack in waiver claim order. So while we know that teams lower in the order passed on claiming him, (although we'll never really know) it's entirely possible a team higher than the Leafs in that order put in a claim as well.
That said, it's also entirely possible the Red Wings tried to trade him before waiving him and found no takers. However, it's also possible that him having a $1.45M AAV cap hit for an additional year, his (whether warranted or not) losing a regular spot on a Red Wings team known for having crap D, and the team being forced to potentially waive a Dman with Smith coming off IR, Sproul (whether warranted or not) sitting in the press box and Jensen (whether warranted or not) stealing a regular spot and requiring waivers to go back down all drove his value in a trade down. I'm still speculating here, but it's also possible that the Red Wings DIDN'T try to trade him, figured Sproul/Ouellet/Jensen might get claimed and gambled on Marchenko's not 100% bury-able cap hit keeping him from getting claimed so they could stow him in GR until they had room.
This is again speculation, but I think Marchenko's not being in the NHL has more to do with his paychecks than his play on the ice. It was reported at the time of his contract termination that the only KHL team he had played for, CSKA (supposedly the richest team in the league), was actively trying to lure back former players. I would imagine the 3 year deal he was presented by CSKA, which are reportedly free from taxes/Escrow/etc., is financially more fruitful than the $1.6M he was due on the NHL contract he walked away from. Especially when you consider taxes/Escrow/etc. On top of that who knows what the offers might have looked like if he hit the free agent market after potentially spending another year barely dressing for the Leafs, getting tossed around on waivers or even going to the AHL.
I think a couple better indicators of where Marchenko's NHL value sat are:
A. Marchenko went to a better, yet still somewhat "defensively challenged" Leafs team. A team coached by a former Red Wings coach that sang Marchenkos praises and gave him a regular spot over some more established dmen during his time in Detroit, even in the playoffs. Despite this, Marchenko dressed for 11 of a possible 32 regular season games, and 0 of a possible 6 in the playoffs for the Leafs. He never even held a regular spot. He sat as a healthy scratch for 9 straight games after being claimed. Then when Carrick went down for 11 games, Marchenko dressed for 7 straight (with his minutes decreasing toward the end) before they scratched him in favor of dressing Martin Marincin for two. They went back to Marchenko for the last two games Carrick missed, where he averaged 11 minutes. Other than two additional 11 minute games to fill in during a 2 game suspension to Roman Polak, Marchenko sat the rest of the regular season in the press box. In the playoffs, when Zaitsev missed games 1 and 2, and Polak missed 3, 4, 5 and 6, Babcock dressed Marincin for all 6.
B. Martin Marincin, the guy that played over Marchenko in the playoffs passed through waivers at the beginning of the current season, and outside of two weeks where he only dressed for 2 NHL games, he's been in the AHL the whole year.