Kevin Labanc snubs the Devils, signs same deal with a different team.

The New Jersey Devils, and their fans, probably aren't too thrilled at this development.

On Saturday, it was reported that after a relatively successful professional tryout offer with the New Jersey Devils, veteran National Hockey League forward Kevin Labanc would be signing with the Columbus Blue Jackets.

It isn't unheard of for a player on a PTO with one team to then sign with a different team, but the situation involving Labanc on Saturday is a little different.

According to a report from NHL insider Frank Seravalli, Labanc actually received a contract offer from the New Jersey Devils organization but rejected that offer only to then sign with the Columbus Blue Jackets. Making matters even worse, the two offers are believed to have been identical with Labanc simply snubbing the offer from the Devils in favor of one from the Blue Jackets.

Now to be clear it isn't like Labanc has some deep rooted hatred of the Devils somewhere in the back of his mind, but rather it sounds like the Blue Jackets simply offered him a better situation than the Devils did. According to Seravalli, the Devils would have needed to place Labanc on waivers and send him down to the American Hockey League for cap compliance reasons, a process that could have resulted in him being picked up by any of the many teams around the league. That in turn could have very well landed Labanc in a situation he didn't want to be in, so he chose the Blue Jackets' offer where he would get to remain at the NHL level for the foreseeable future.

Nonetheless that won't make it any less disappointing for the Devils and their fans who saw Labanc pick up 3 goals and an assist over the course of just 3 preseason games, but it was a shrewd move on the part of the Blue Jackets to move in and snatch Labanc away at the last minute.