They've never come out and said he was going to UFA. That's a logical conclusion, but it's never been said plainly. That's a mixed bag. If that's the accurate conclusion, then they could have just said so, as Cyclones said initially, although I personally don't believe they had to (but yeah it would've been nice). Of course, by not saying so, it's possible to interpret that he is willing to consider signing in Columbus, just not until he checks out all of his options in UFA.
And because they haven't been transparent (probably on purpose, Milstein strikes be as a dick), and thus it's possible to believe they're just stringing the team, city and fans along, then yeah, some fallout is totally reasonable.