If Smid retires his cap hit disappears from the Flames and he doesn't get paid
If Smid doesn't retire his cap hit stays and he gets paid.
If Smid doesn't retire and he gets put on LTIR, the Flames will be allowed to exceed the salary cap by Smid's cap hit. This is however not as good as cap space as it doesn't get pro rated as the season progresses. In Smid's case he has a cap hit of 3.5 million, so the Flames could exceed the 16/17 cap by 3.5 million once he is put on LTIR.
In contrast if Smid were to retire and the Flames didn't use that aditional cap space through the season, they could potentially take on ~14 million at the trade deadline
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