Miffed? Sure.
But the proper response to being miffed about something like that is showing on a day-in, day-out basis that you're better than whatever no-talent scrub it is. It isn't to **** and moan about how meanie Blashill is giving Riley Sheahan your ice time. Make him give you the ice time.
I'm not arguing that AA is right to whine about it, but it wouldn't make me eager to sign anything that either left years of team control at the end, or extended past the end of team control. And I wouldn't be doing any cost-cutting favors, if I thought I was worth more than whatever I was being offered.
I also don't buy that Blashill would respond to AA playing well by giving him more playing time, given that he demonstrably didn't react to guys playing poorly by cutting their ice time. AA was, on paper, the best scorer on a team that stunk at scoring, and he still couldn't get any meaningful ice time, behind guys who were defensively inept, and offensively ECHL-level.
And frankly, I'm not in the room (clearly), but I don't think most of the guys there look at it like "what the hell! Sheahan doesn't score a goal and he plays every game and you're benching me?!" They see Darren Helm as a guy who's probably pretty fun to play with because you know he's going balls to the wall every shift. They'll probably see a guy like Dan Cleary (at least until his last year where he could hardly lift his legs) as a grizzled warrior who's busting his ass and, even if he'd get his crap ruined, would jump into the fray to protect you.
I think the vets look at those guys and love it, because they know they can get away with the same thing. I don't want to speculate on the kids, but watching veterans get special treatment, in spite of being bad players, is rarely inspiring.
I think a lot of the angst about how the young guys are treated is 100% because the fanbase personally doesn't like the veterans. I mean, when you have Mantha repeatedly come out and say "yeah, I need to be better" and then the stories of Green laying him the **** out in practice cause he was skating lazy there and him not going off the deep end, I think it's more that the fans are looking for any reason to discredit what's going on.
Or it's Mantha, continuing to lack any actual fire (which isn't my storyline, personally, but it's one that circulated). If a defenseman is taking it upon himself ot blow up a rookie, when the season has long since been lost, and the rookie isn't even upset about it, I think it speaks volumes about the overall feeling in the locker room. I don't buy into the 'losing culture' crap, but this is down the same road.
And you can scoff at the notion of "paying your dues" and talk about how if you're AA and you don't like it... but it really kinda comes down to tough ****. You want to jump the line and get a huge payday? Come out and score 100 points and be the best player in the league. Jump out to be the #1C on your team because you're so damn good. Don't just put up good offensive rate stats in ridiculously sheltered situations (he's between 62 and 64% O-zone starts) Otherwise, put on your working pants and get to work. If AA consistently played as well as he's capable of, the Wings wouldn't be playing him 9-14 minutes a night and they wouldn't be hammering at his bridge contract.
If AA wasn't consistently getting yanked off the ice because he missed a single assignment, he might be doing some of that. Instead, the team overpunishes his mistakes, while allowing garbage players to make an infinite number of mistakes. I don't see how that wouldn't rankle, as you sit on the bench for the last 40 minutes of the game.
I'd also add that, half of the criticisms you're making are demonstrably not things he can change. He can't produce in all situations, if he's only getting on the ice in certain situations. And he's outproducing basically everyone when he does get chances.
The cap situation is why they are sitting so firm on his deal, but AA also does clearly have things to work on. If he were a complete player, they wouldn't have left him for last.
I don't buy it. This front office has done absolutely nothing to suggest they have any player development or contractual competence in the recent past. They no longer get any benefit of the doubt. Blashill gets even less after nearly the entire team regressed badly the minute he got behind the bench.
That said, I don't really care about AA's future in Detroit. He won't be part of the next core, either because he'll be gone, or because the team demonstrably can't develop talent. Sign him or don't, it doesn't really have any bearing on the team.