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Jaromir Jagr will not play in World Cup of Hockey

(Photo by Eliot J. Schechter/NHLI via Getty Images)

The Czech Republic will be without one of their iconic stars for this year’s World Cup of Hockey.

According to Denik Sports via NHL.com, Jaromir Jagr declined an offer from team general manager Martin Rucinsky to participate in the tournament, which will run at the Air Canada Center in Toronto from Sept. 17 to Oct. 1.

A Czech hockey spokesman confirmed the news to Puck Daddy.

Jagr had announced his retirement from international competition after last year’s World Championships.

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"We spoke to each other during the weekend and his final decision was he wouldn't be going," Rucinsky said per NHL.com. "It would be too difficult for him to get ready for such an important tournament during the summer. And he said at last year's (IIHF) World Championship that he was done with the national team. He also will have a lot of work with Kladno (Czech league team Jagr owns). He wants to do some work with the team and therefore wouldn't be able to get ready for the World Cup in time."

The 44-year-old Jagr was not on the Czech Republic’s initial roster announced on March 2 in order to give him more time to decide whether he wanted to participate.

Even as he’s aged, Jagr has continued to prove his effectiveness as a player and would have probably helped the Czech team that seems to have some depth issues in the World Cup. Jagr helped the Czechs to an Olympic gold in 1998 in Nagano, Japan and Bronze at the Torino, Italy Games in 2006.

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(Photo by Joel Auerbach/Getty Images)
(Photo by Joel Auerbach/Getty Images)

Last season he led the Florida Panthers with 66 points in 79 games. But at this stage of his career, Jagr has seemed to grow tired of non-regular season NHL games and has shown an increasing desire to put his effort into winning another Stanley Cup.

He participated in last year’s NHL All-Star Game, even though he voiced some displeasure on being voted into the game that switched to a 3-on-3 tournament for 2016. Still, he seemed to enjoy himself by the end of the weekend.

Sean Leahy contributing

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!