Pierre-Edouard Bellemare Announces Retirement

The second-highest scoring French-born player in NHL history has hung up his skates. According to an announcement from the NHL, forward Pierre-Édouard Bellemare has retired from professional hockey.

Before his time in North America, Bellemare spent his professional playing days in France with Rouen before joining the SHL’s Skellefteå AIK in the early 2010s. He became a successful secondary scorer in Sweden, registering 45 goals and 93 points in 136 games throughout his last three seasons.

As an international free agent, Bellemare joined the Philadelphia Flyers at 29 years old before the 2014-15 campaign. Thanks to a subsequent two-year deal with the organization, Bellemare spent the next three years with Philadelphia, scoring 17 goals and 34 points in 237 games while averaging 13:07 of ice time per game. Additionally, Bellemare showed off his physical prowess, tallying 259 hits throughout that timeframe.

Despite signing a two-year extension with the Flyers toward the end of the 2016-17 campaign, he wouldn’t play a single game for them under that contract. The following summer, Bellemare was selected by the upstart Vegas Golden Knights in their expansion draft, becoming one of the original misfits.

At the time, Bellemare enjoyed the best season of his NHL career with the Golden Knights, scoring six goals and 16 points in 72 games with a +5 rating. He also factored into their improbable run to the 2018 Stanley Cup Final, registering three assists in 20 playoff games.

After finishing out his contract with Vegas, Bellemare signed a two-year agreement with the Colorado Avalanche for the 2019-20 and 2020-21 campaigns. Despite both years of the deal being shortened by the Covid-19 pandemic, Bellemare finished his tenure with the Avalanche having scored 18 goals and 33 points in 122 games.

Again signing a two-year deal, Bellemare departed from the Avalanche to the defending Stanley Cup champions, the Tampa Bay Lightning. It turned out to be a risky gamble, as the Lightning were defeated by Bellemare’s former team in the 2022 Stanley Cup Final.

Finishing off his career, Bellemare signed a one-year contract with the Seattle Kraken for the 2023-24 season, finishing with four goals and seven points in 40 games. Bellemare has been playing for the NL’s HC Ajoie for the past two years and played for Team France at the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Despite being nearly 60 points back of Antoine Roussel as the highest-scoring French-born player in NHL history, he has the most games played (700) by far. Across 10 seasons in the NHL, Bellemare registered 64 goals, 138 points, 615 hits, and 502 blocked shots, with an additional five goals and 15 points in 85 postseason contests.

We at PHR congratulate Bellemare on his 10-year career and wish him the best for his next chapter.