Statistically, Rantanen should be an all-star

LOUIS» Second-year Avalanche ST. winger Mikko Rantanen doesn’t consider it a snub, because he understands the NHL’s design to have every team represented at this weekend’s All-Star Game in Tampa, Fla.

So he will quietly spend the weekend back in Denver after Thursday night’s game against the Blues at Scottrade Center.

“Next year,” Rantanen said with a smile after Thursday’s morning skate.

The big Finn is considered an all-star by Nathan MacKinnon and the rest of the Avs. Rantanen, 21, has played right wing on MacKinnon’s line all season and is tied as the Central Division’s fifth-leading scorer with 47 points (17 goals); MacKinnon, Colorado’s lone allstar representative, leads the division and is second in the NHL with 60 points (24 goals).

All-star rosters for Sunday’s 3on-3 tournament feature 11 players from each division, and the Central took two forwards with fewer points than Rantanen in Dallas’ Tyler Seguin (42 points) and Minnesota’s Eric Staal (41). Seguin is the second Stars player on the allstar roster, along with defenseman John Klingberg, but Staal is the only member of the Wild.

“We should have other guys going too,” MacKinnon said, speaking primarily about Rantanen.

Sickness and injuries. The Avs used every available body in Thursday’s Central Division showdown with the Blues. Rookie forward J.T. Compher missed the game with an illness, and veteran forward Colin Wilson hasn’t sufficiently recovered from the flu. Also, forward Sven Andrighetto missed his 10th consecutive game because of a leg injury.

Defenseman Mark Barberio is out with a lower-body injury and blueliner Tyson Barrie missed his 13th consecutive game with a hand injury. Barberio and Barrie, plus goalie Semyon Varlamov (groin area), participated in the morning skate — unlike any of the sick or injured forwards.

Footnotes. The Avs are off the rest of the weekend and report back at 2 p.m. Monday for practice, before traveling to Vancouver for Tuesday’s game against the Canucks. … St. Louis had forward Jaden Schwartz back in the lineup after the former Colorado College star missed the previous 20 games because of an ankle injury. Schwartz was one of the NHL’s top scorers early in the season, producing 35 points (14 goals) in 30 games before taking a shot off the ankle.