They should just waive him…easier
Not always the case. According to CapFriendly, only eight teams even have the space to make an outright claim and most (if not all) of those teams would pass. Couple other teams have space with LTIR but that would disappear if certain players got healthy.
Normally the scenario is swapping unwanted contracts. See it sometimes more in the NBA. A team might be more happy if they could get Labanc on an expiring contract if they would swap a bad deal with more term. Maybe a bad example, but say the Devils traded for another goalie but were looking to dump Vitek Vanecek's contract. They have the LTIR space right now but maybe would be happy to swap out Vanecek for an expiring contract to free up the 3.4 million for next year.
The other rough thing about Labanc's contract is that he makes 5.875 million in actual dollars.