Kevin LaBanc agrees to professional tryout offer.

Kevin LaBanc has reportedly agreed to sign a professional tryout offer.

The early rumblings of the news were first report by San Jose Sharks insider Sheng Peng, and it has now been confirmed by New Jersey Devils beat reporter James Nichols. No surprise given the nature of the two men covering this story, the former San Jose Sharks forward will be signing that PTO with the New Jersey Devils.

Presumably this means that Lebanc, once considered an up and coming forward in the National Hockey League, was unable to secure himself a standard NHL contract as a free agent this summer.

Lebanc was limited to just 46 games last season and his production saw a drastic decline, with the forward recording just 2 goals and 7 assists for a total of 9 points over that stretch last season. To be fair Labanc was a part of an abysmal Sharks team last season, but finished the campaign with a very ugly plus minus rating of -27 over just those 46 games.

Just looking at the raw numbers it is easy to see why teams were wary of giving him another NHL contract this summer, but this is a nice low-risk type of move for the Devils as they gear up for NHL training camp. If Lebanc continues to struggle they will simply cut him loose before the start of the season, and if he shows that he has turned his form around it will be a great cost-effective type deal for the Devils to carry into the regular season.

Labanc is coming off a 4 year deal that carried an average annual value of $4.725 million per season, but will likely be looking at something closer to the league minimum on a 1 year deal if he does indeed manage to earn a contract in training camp.