The bolded exactly. He basically made the exact same salary structure comment right after the Faulk trade/extension. All the players are aware of what Army's trying to build, so it's more of a philosophical bent than a threat or veiled volley toward Pietrangelo.
I don't think it is a threat, but it is pretty clearly a message. Messages don't have to be nefarious. Army is not saying this stuff publicly if he is willing to give Petro Doughty money.
Teams and agents come into negotiations with different assumptions/justifications/baselines. Players point to comparables and say "this is the market for a top end player. I might not be as good as Doughty or Karlsson, but the market dictates that I will get that in UFA. So now that the market has created this high water mark, I need to be at or just below it." Teams say "While that is the high water mark, you aren't that guy. We are still going to point to your closest on-ice comparable and believe your contract needs to be at or just above that."
Generally you end up landing somewhere in the middle, but Petro's representation is correct that he would get absurd offers in UFA. Quarterbacks in the NFL have done a magnificent job selling owners on their point of view. In the NFL, the cost of doing business is that you pay any average or better starting QB a top 3 salary. For QBs, it doesn't matter that you aren't a top 3 QB. What matters is that you would get that money from someone as a free agent, so your team pays it to you. We aren't quite there yet in hockey, but we are closer than we were 5 years ago. Assuming Petro's representation is doing their job, this is Army's way of saying "we're not doing that."
I don't think this is a threat or anything nefarious. But it is absolutely directed to Petro's agent.