NHL's Pacific leaders will go without all-star rep

Injured Kraken forward SEATTLE Matty Beniers will miss out on his first NHL All-Star Game opportunity and won't be replaced on the roster by any teammates, the league announced.

Chandler Stephenson of the Vegas Golden Knights will take his spot.

Beniers, 20, considered a front-runner for the Calder Trophy as the league's rookie of the year, was injured in the second period of a 6-1 victory Jan. 25 against the Vancouver Canucks when blindsided behind the play by Canucks defenceman Tyler Myers. An interference penalty was called on Myers for hitting Beniers when he didn't have the puck, but no supplemental league discipline was taken.

Beniers, who appeared to strike his head on the ice, kept playing in the second period, but he didn't return for the third and has missed two games.

“There were some additional steps that needed to be taken before he could be cleared to play in the game,” Kraken general manager Ron Francis said. “He's in the process of going through those, but he wouldn't have been cleared in the time that the league requires.”

No replacement Kraken players will be sent to the all-star game, which will be held in Sunrise, Fla. A number of players had made advance vacation plans and left immediately following Saturday night's 3-1 win over Columbus.

“They asked about one player in particular replacing him,” Francis said without naming the player. “But he's also going through some things and wants to use the break to recuperate.”

The Kraken enter the all-star break with a 29-15-5 record and are alone in first place atop the Pacific Division, a point ahead of Vegas and Los Angeles with several games in hand. Beniers leads all rookie scorers with 17 goals and 19 assists in 47 games and has become a mainstay offensive threat for a Kraken team getting balanced production from all four forward lines.

Kraken coach Dave Hakstol called the hit on Beniers “garbage,” but Myers won't face supplemental discipline for injuring one of the league's up-and-coming young stars. The NHL's department of player safety has long been criticized for what is often viewed as an inconsistent application of the league's rule book and inability to protect its best skill players.

In December, Kraken defenceman Jamie Oleksiak was suspended three games for delivering a blow to the head of Washington Capitals defenceman Alexander Alexeyev. Some had argued that the six-foot-seven Oleksiak didn't intentionally hit the much shorter Alexeyev in the head area and was trying to play the body, as opposed to Myers delivering an illegal blow on a defenceless Beniers when he wasn't involved in the play.