Sucky thing about Mac not retiring is that the Sens aren't totally free to use his cap hit (until the last year of his contract) because if we e.g. sign Duchene and Brassard, using his LTIR cap relief, and he comesback the next season, we're going to running a 4.75 million surplus. And count me in as someone who doesn't believe Mac will officially retire because insurance isn't going to allow that and pay him, and he's not going to leave all that money on the board. We're not talking 1million pre tax here.
He's not going to come back.
I know Dorion said that if Mac wants to come try at camp next year, things would be open, but there's no way this isn't an open and shut case. This is the same GM who pokerfaced Bob McKenzie about Mac's status a week before he failed his test when Mac most likely failed a post season physical.
Mac passed his baseline prior to returning, and then must have failed a physical after the playoffs. We know he was hurt in the Rangers series. With this all being put out there now, I'd guess this is as open and shut as it gets. Mac is basically in Pronger/Savard/Horton type territory where he is "retired" but still considered an active player contract, and simply has to go and fail his physical every year so he can collect his cheque.
For the Sens, his actual cap hit won't be much of a factor unless something changes and we're no longer a budget team. It's all about how much actual money we're responsible to cover for his contract, which might be just shy of 1M if the rumoured 80 percent insured amount is true. I'm not even sure if he is on LTIR right now as TSN reported since Capfriendly has not updated our roster to reflect that. We also haven't exceeded the cap, so putting a player on LTIR when we have not exceeded the cap serves zero purpose so I would not be surprised if that was a typo or a mistake on TSN's part and they meant that Mac is on regular IR as he has been for the entire season.