So saying a garbage stat is garbage is having blinders on now? Good to know.
+/- shows absolutely nothing but goal differential, it's a garbage individual stat because it's almost solely team based. People who seriously use it in an argument are absolutely clueless. Sprong's +/- isn't even remotely bad enough where someone can legitimately point to it as concerning. Oh no, he's a -7 where the next worst guy is a -4 (-2 if you want to look at players who have played in a lot of games). Oh no!!!!!!
There are plenty of discussion points to bring up with Sprong, don't litter actual discussions with +/- nonsense.
+/- has it's flaws, but that doesn't mean that it's always to be so quickly disregarded simply because it paints a picture that you don't care to look upon.
If despite your scoring, and your team's success, you have a considerably worse +/-, it might be worth asking why that might be. When you combine those questions with the fact that not only are the big Pens not calling him up, but the baby Pens are scratching him, that should probably make you realize that there's probably more to him not playing than sheer stubbornness.
To me, that says that he has talent, but often makes critical errors and/or has concentration or effort lapses. Maybe he tries too hard to make a play that has minimal chances of working and often surrenders scoring chances the other way. Maybe he too often relies on his talent rather than using his head. In other words, his occasional scoring doesn't override the frequent mistakes, at least not yet.
Simon may have had a few gaffes and disappeared at times, but he was mostly sound and occasionally made really crisp passes. He might not have helped the team as much as Sprong, but he probably hurts them less for the most part.