I think he wants to stay on a cup contending team while making 14+ million, and probably won’t go anywhere else unless they give him Kaprizov money. Given the season he had last year, his age, and history of production, I can’t really blame him either.
Over the lifetime of the deal he’s going to average between 10-12% of the cap at 14 million, which for a guy with his production profile on a contender seems fine. I think some of these guys are rightfully seeing other stars salaries get lapped as the cap expands, and aren’t about that.