Once again I'm asking for a source and no one has responded otherwise, he looked disinterested and lazy and it's not like he hasn't been trending this way for quite some time either.
As a goalscorer that he still ahs but the other parts of his game have been diminishing and are pretty clear but this thread is about goal prediction so let's get back at that.
I say 20-25 goals give or take depending on usage of course.
There's not a lot one can do about sources when he doesn't sit out for the injury, and that's always been his way of doing things when possible. You say "disinterested and lazy" because that's what your confirmation bias feeds, the rest of us saw a guy passing away one-timers he'd usually take and an uncharacteristic aversion to checking, plus a shitload of cupping bruises.
So he's "disinterested, lazy, trending downward", then gets an extended break and comes back as good as he's been the last few years and looks pretty much back to normal and your instinct is to conclude that he wasn't injured at all, just phoning it in? I thought it was like hockey 101 that if a pretty established player looks really bad for weeks at a time it's likely physical.
It was clear as day to people watching the games, you'll find it in GDT's pretty much up until the All-Star break, and that's about all for attempting to reason with you because I have some actually achievable goals today.