Keeler: Mikko Rantanen got robbed. Avalanche’s star winger was NHL’s biggest All-Star snub, despite best offensive start of his career.

How is Mikko Rantanen not an All-Star again? Asking for a friend.

OK, about 20,000 of them.

“I don’t know,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar replied Monday night when asked if Rantanen, his resplendent right winger, gets enough respect in league circles. “I would say probably not, based on what he’s done for us over the last few seasons, especially.

“He’s really come into his own. I don’t know. That line (Rantanen, Nathan MacKinnon and Gabe Landeskog) is talked about as being one of the best, if not the best, in the league, so they get credit there.

“But again — he finds a way to score goals, to chip in, even if he’s not feeling great or it’s not his night or he’s fighting it a little bit, he finds a way to make a play or two in every game on the scoresheet. He’s been really consistent. That’s hard to do. To produce even when you’re not at your best, that’s hard to do. It takes a special talent to be able to do that.”

And Rantanen, at 25, just might be putting together his most special season: He went into Wednesday night’s showdown with Boston with 49 points through 37 games, a clip which puts him on a pace for 101 points over 76 appearances.

Context: That figure would crush his previous season high in points (87 in 2018-’19) by 14. No. 96’s 22 goals through 37 games sets him on a clip for 45 after 76 tilts, a projection that would obliterate another personal best (31 goals in ’18-19).

Only four players have reached 150 goals in Avs/Nordiques history faster than the big Finn’s 368 games in burgundy: Peter Stastny (269), Michel Goulet (308), Joe Sakic (312) and Anton Stastny (344).

So how is he not an All-Star again?

Yeah, yeah, we know. Rules.

At least one All-Star representative from every team. If one position just happens to be stacked, well, dem’s the breaks.

Then again, if you’re leaving a top-10 scorer — Rantanen’s 49 points were tied for seventh in the NHL as of Wednesday — at home for the Mid-Winter Classic, are you truly serving the game?

Again, asking for a friend.

On a fun Avs team, Nazem Kadri might be the most fun Colorado player to watch, given his current form. Which is saying something on a cast that also features MacKinnon and Cale Makar sharing center stage.

But the Avs aren’t where they are — lapping the Western Conference, unbeaten from Jan. 14-25 — without Rantanen. The quiet Beatle. The Avs’ George Harrison, the perfect foil to MacKinnon’s Lennon and Makar’s McCartney.

Through the first 13 games of 2022, No. 96 put up a team-best eight goals while tying for the Avs’ lead with MacKinnon in points (19) and points per game (1.46).

“And Mikko just has that whole package,” Bednar continued. “The entire package. The size. The vision. The ability to score (and) make plays, plays in traffic, plays with guys on his back.”

He’ll put the team on his back, too, when needed. The Avs were 14-3-0 going into Wednesday evening in the 17 games in which Rantanen had scored at least once, posting a 15-5-3 mark when he didn’t. They were 22-4-0 when he’s collected at least one point. And 5-4-2 when he didn’t.

How is he not an All-Star again?

“I mean, I’m sure he does get a lot of credit throughout the league,” Bendar said. “But he probably could use, deserves, a little bit more.”

A lot more, now that you mention it.

Justice may not be served at the All-Star game in Vegas next month. But you can’t shake the feeling that Rantanen’s rebuttal will come on the ice, over the second half of the season, between the pipes, silent and deadly. The sweetest revenge is best served cold.