Selanne May Get All-Star Reprieve

Teemu Selanne, the sixth-leading scorer in the NHL, was left off the Western Conference All-Star team when the roster was announced Thursday, but he still could be added as a replacement for an injured player.

“I think that’s a gross injustice,” Duck General Manager Jack Ferreira said. “A guy in the top 10 or 12 in scoring should be on the team.”

Also snubbed: Phoenix’s Keith Tkachuk, who ranks 12th in scoring and is tied for fifth with 23 goals. The Coyotes’ only All-Star spot went to defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky, a former Duck.

“I was expecting to be there, but there are a lot of good players,” said Selanne, who has a chance to be named later to replace Colorado’s Peter Forsberg or Edmonton’s Jason Arnott, who are injured.

“Of course I was disappointed,” Selanne said. “But I know they have to have a player from every team.”

Still, Detroit’s Steve Yzerman and Dallas’ Mike Modano made the team even though they weren’t their team’s only representatives, and both have fewer goals and points than Selanne, who has 22 goals and 48 points and is the third-leading scorer in the Western Conference.

Selanne’s absence means Paul Kariya, who was voted to the starting lineup, will be the Ducks’ only representative.

Starters are selected by fan voting, but the rest of the 21-player team was chosen by NHL senior vice president Brian Burke in consultation with Western Conference Coach Ken Hitchcock of Dallas and general managers Bob Gainey of Dallas and Pierre Lacroix of Colorado.

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Coach Ron Wilson plans to keep playing Ken Baumgartner as a defenseman, and that could mean first-round pick Ruslan Salei will be sent to the minors.

Salei and Nikolai Tsulygin will probably both be regular scratches as long as Baumgartner is playing defense instead of forward, as he has in two of the last three games. For the sake of Salei’s development, it’s important for him to play regularly. He has appeared in 21 of the Ducks’ 37 games and has a minus-seven plus-minus rating, lowest among the team’s defensemen.