If Johnny Gaudreau is to be believed, he nearly became a New Jersey Devil. 

Of course, the six-time All-Star won’t be playing in New Jersey; the race for Gaudreau ended on the first day of NHL free agency in stunning fashion, when he inked a seven-year, $68.25 million deal with the Columbus Blue Jackets. 

But that contract almost never came to fruition. 

“I had like three, four teams I knew I wanted to play for,” Gaudreau said on the “Spittin’ Chiclets” podcast. “Columbus was obviously high on that list for me, but there was a few other teams. The day of I was only really talking to two of them. I was pretty much signing with a different team.

“Most of the day I hadn’t heard from Columbus and then all of a sudden they called at like 4 [p.m.] And I told my agent, I was like, ‘I want to go here. Just try to get this done. This is the spot I want to be right here.’ He got it done in an hour and next thing you know, I was signing with Columbus. It was a stressful day, but I was super excited.

Gaudreau then confirmed the team he was going to sign with was the Devils.

“I think I was trying to get a deal done with the Devils and then Columbus called, and I was like, ‘I want to go here.’”

Gaudreau, a native of Salem, N.J., spurned a trio of local teams in the Devils, Islanders and Flyers to sign with the Blue Jackets. In fact, Gaudreau also took less money with Columbus; the Devils reportedly offered “well north” of $10 million in average annual value, while Gaudreau’s deal with the Blue Jackets is roughly $9.8 million per year. 

The 28-year-old Gaudreau is coming off a career year for the Flames, netting 115 points and leading Calgary to a first-round playoff victory over the Stars. And now, he leaves the Devils pondering the tantalizing prospects of what could have been.