Nicklas Backstrom at a preseason practice.

Nicklas Backstrom is skipping the NHL’s Young Stars Game because he wants a day off. The Caps’ second leading scorer is sitting out a competition that pits second year players against rookies. Last year, when the Young Stars game featured only rookies, Backstrom competed. This year, many fans and analysts have asked why Backstrom isn’t on the Eastern Conference All Star team. While it’s nice that the NHL expanded the Young Stars game to include more developing talent, Backstrom deserves to appear on a larger stage.

The All Star game features the league’s top 36 skaters and six goalies, including the top four centers from each conference. Backstrom is currently 16th in the NHL in points and seventh in assists. His 48 points are fifth among Eastern Conference centers and his 36 assists are fourth among the same group. Each of these statistics counts Pittsburgh’s Evgenei Malkin as a center, even though he as been playing left wing more and more this year. Even with the pileup at center, some members of this year’s All Star team, including Pittsburgh center Sidney Crosby, are listed simply as “forward,” a generic position that gave executives extra leeway to include more of the league’s top centers.

Why isn’t Backstrom a shoe-in for the All Star team? The NHL requires that each team be represented by at least one player. That could account for the inclusion of Eastern Conference centers Vincent Lecavalier and Eric Staal. Both players have had great seasons in the past, but Backstrom is currently outperforming both, and his Capitals are near the top of the league.