I don't know if it is entitlement as much as it is leverage.
In a perfect world, you want all your players to embrace the challenge of living in a $500 a month hotel with Scott Sabourin before they make it up to the big leagues, but 99 percent of NHLers are pampered upper class athletes who have had life on easy street. So I'm not going to judge a College free agent who recognizes that they have the leverage to call their shot anymore than your average player.
Its common for players to come out of college and to burn a year off their ELC. Players these days look at every chance to get paid quicker.
Yeah this is expected. Imagine if we told Sanderson lol no at burning his ELC. Philadelphia would still have Cutter Gauthier if they signed him and let him burn the year.
I'm sure there are a few cases where players were told no and stayed, but it seems uncommon. I remember with Colin White, they insisted that he sign an ATO with Belleville. Strangely, the ATO didn't even come with a post-dated ELC. He signed his post-dated ELC after a few games. It was incredibly strange how it played out.
Sometimes players sign ATOs when their ELC is still in a position to slide, because it gets them into important pro games, but if I recall Colin White's was not going to slide.