The hole in your logic is that Sheary needs to bring that extra production in the play-offs because this team is - or should be - play-offs or GTFO.
And he hasn't done so and after three play-offs, you've kinda got to think he won't. Which is why, regardless of who else you trade, Sheary should leave the building.
I don't like saying it, because I like watching him and think we'll look like pillocks when he bounces back somewhere after his very cheap trading, but that's what we should do. Trades would have to go very odd indeed for me to change my mind on that.
And because of this, I'll re-iterate - I don't believe in Sheary vs Rust. I believe in Sheary OR Sheary + Rust. Maybe Rutherford won't go with this... but he's wrong
Sheary had 17 points in 45 games in the 2 cup runs combined. That's fine production overall, especially when he's playing 3rd line minutes overall and not getting any powerplay production. Yeah, he struggled to produce in the playoffs this year, but so did everyone else.
The big thing I don't get is why people criticize Sheary for his playoff production while simultaneously saying Rust is a clutch playoff performer. You are aware that they're separated by 2 points in their entire playoff careers, right? Rust has 16 goals and 21 points in 58 games, Sheary has 6 goals and 19 points in 57 games. Outside of the HBK run, Hagelin has been really bad in the playoffs for the Penguins, he has 5 points in his last 24 playoff games. I really don't understand why people criticize Sheary's playoff production, it's no worse than anyone else's production and it's all at ES.
I get what you're saying... but given some of the centers and skilled players we have... I think at this point I'd rather have a bunch of 2 way wingers to fill in the gaps then more pure skill guys like Sheary. Especially seeing how the gap between the 'average' Rust vs 'average' Sheary likely are not all that great when it comes to their actual production. So while I agree with you that Sheary likely has a higher upside when he's on his game... I don't think he's consistent enough for me to bank on that, and as such if given the choice between them, I'd take Rust every time (based on who we currently have on our roster - although that probably changes if/when Kessel is traded).
I think Rust is a bad example in this case because he's good offensively too, I just don't think his defense is relevant. For guys with equal production and equal talents, go with the better defensive player because you'll be getting more out of that obviously. But when production isn't equal or the talents are very different? That changes things, I don't think defense matters at that point. I realized after my first post that I picked the wrong guy to bring up in question, it's not Rust. It's Hagelin vs Sheary.
Let's compare Hagelin vs Sheary, you have Hagelin's forechecking ability vs Sheary's pure production. At that point, defense doesn't matter because Sheary should be producing a lot more. It's a question of how many points does Hagelin's forechecking count for, because like I said, you don't get points for preventing goals.