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Dallas Stars Make it Official: Jamie Benn Will Not Play in the World Cup

In a not-terribly-surprising piece of news, the Dallas Stars announced that captain Jamie Benn will not be available to play for Team Canada in the NHL’s upcoming World Cup of Hockey.

Benn, who had offseason surgery on a “core muscle injury” that sounds suspiciously like what what many other medical groups call a sports hernia, initially had a projected recovery time of six weeks, which would put him as theoretically available right about the time the eight-team tournament is expected to kick off. However, getting back into full playing shape is a longer road than simply being cleared, so it’s no surprise the Stars and Benn made a decision to hold back and attend training camp in Cedar Park instead.

The Stars will still have a representative on Team Canada with Tyler Seguin, and defenseman Esa Lindell is on Team Finland. Of the other likely representatives, the Swedes decided to take Niklas Kronwall over John Klingberg, as veteran status and number of team caps outweighs recent talent and production at the NHL level, but Ales Hemsky was a late add to the Czech Republic, which obviously needed to fulfill their quota of most Ales Hemsky plays of the game. He will be joined there by Radek Faksa.

Benn, meanwhile, will join the rest of his teammates in Cedar Park starting on Friday, Sept. 23. He has been replaced on the Canadian roster by Logan Couture.

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