Think about this from Athanasiou's perspective.
You're a young, cocky forward, who loves to be flashy on offense, and would just as soon let defensive responsibilities go by the wayside. You've butted heads with the coaching staff on multiple occasions, and now the front office is making you an offer that you think is a tad low.
I see three scenarios that would be attractive to me:
1) I play for a championship caliber team. Maybe they let me be the niche scorer that I am, or maybe they ask me to play more defense than I'd prefer, but either way, we win a ton of games, and have a shot at a Stanley Cup.
Verdict: Detroit isn't even MAKING the playoffs, let alone doing any damage in them. This one's out the window.
2) I play for a team that, win or lose, lets me focus on what's most fun for me: being a human highlight reel, and not caring much about backchecking or other two-way play.
Verdict: The Wings have a coaching staff that would prefer to skate 4 lines of Luke Glendening out there. Strike two.
3) I might not like the team, or the style, or the win/loss record, but I get paid boatloads of money to play in the NHL. Make it rain, baby!
Verdict: I'm not saying the kid deserves more money, but it's pretty clear that Detroit isn't spending a dime more than they have to, and that they have AA locked in at a $2M cap on value.
So if the team is going to continue to stink, and going to continue to ask me to play defense, and going to continue to pay me less money than I can get elsewhere...
...what about Detroit is better than goofing around in the KHL for a few years? If I'm AA, even if they never trade my rights, there's no incentive to stick around and suffer through changing my game, just to keep losing either way.
The Wings are going to keep losing players that they place in the 'selective discipline' category, because, other than a new arena, they no longer have anything that's a draw to play here.