You're focusing on these days? I'll edit the OP to avoid confusing you further.
Again - I'm basing this judgment on the past few years. He was not a particularly effective 2nd line C last year either. He may say he feels the healthiest, but again - he looks pretty slow out there right now.
He racks up points on the PP, and is good on draws, and can take over games when someone lights a fire under his ass. But more and more, to me at least, that sounds like a perfect 3rd line C. Not a player to build a line around that we need secondary scoring from.
This is why we have struggled to get secondary scoring, not because we still haven't found the magical winger that will turn him into an even-strength producing 2nd line C.
Thank you.
If you are looking at him from the past couple years he's looked like a turd sandwich from what we'd expect. But I would say you have to look at that in context too. That's two years where he wasn't able to train during the offseason due to injuries/surgeries.
If he still looks sluggish after 20-25 games then we have something we need to worry about.