I am kind of with you on this. Stepan IMO seems to disappear at times during the year. For the money we pay him he needs to produce more consistently and better. Also he is not good on face offs. Something this team has been weak in for a while. I would like to see us get stronger in the middle.
I don't know if I'd call Brass offensively superior. He's definitely the more explosive, exciting player, but Stepan has had higher points per game than Brass the past four seasons, individually. He's just played less games, so he hasn't got the same totals.
Stepan can also play in many different situations. I think they're close in value, but given Stepan's age and ceiling, I'd rather just sell high on Brass while he is under 30.