It's definitely part of it. But it's a lot more simple than that. They created a completely unnecessary vicious cycle with this player by playing mind games with him under Tippett and then continuing that into Tocchet's regime. It seems like what he has to do to stay in the lineup is nebulous and changes all the time. He's a goal scorer, yet when he scores goals he still gets benched. At one point he was scoring in spite of the awful linemates he was being given, yet still couldn't escape the bench. To date, he's still one of the most productive forwards in terms of p/60. For all we know, he requested a trade in the offseason, or sometime under Tippett and was told no. It would certainly explain how distracted Domi appears to be.
You don't get from exhuberant 20 goal scoring young player to mopey, supposedly out of shape, disinterested player without the organization failing that player multiple times.
If I was the 2nd most productive forward as Duclair had been early on, yet couldn't buy ice, I'd peace out too. I do everything to force a trade. Because that's the only tool an RFA has. Force a trade away from this dog**** franchise.