"The lure of a possible gold rush was enough for three Maple Leafs to agree to take a trip to Slovakia.

Not so for one of their American teammates.

Captain Dion Phaneuf, rookie netminder James Reimer and defenceman Luke Schenn will play for Canada at the world hockey championship. But Phil Kessel has said no to a similar invitation from the U.S.

"I'm kind of worn out," Kessel said on Monday. "It has been a long season. I'm going to take a break.

"There have been a lot of ups and downs and I'm tired."

Kessel was one of five Leafs — the others were Schenn, Clarke MacArthur, Nikolai Kulemin and Tyler Bozak — who played in all 82 games during the season.

Kessel has represented his country on numerous occasions, including the 2010 Winter Olympics.

For Reimer, the invitation from Dave Nonis, the Leafs executive who is doubling as Canada's general manager, was too sweet to pass up. The 23-year-old was 20-10-5 with a .921 save percentage and without him the Leafs would not have come as close as they did to securing a playoff berth before they were eliminated from contention."