Pierre-Edouard Bellemare has retired from professional hockey after a 10-season NHL career, Pro Hockey Rumors reported, citing an announcement from the NHL.
Bellemare, who was born in Le Blanc-Mesnil, France, finishes with 700 regular-season NHL games, the most by any French-born player in league history. The NHL's player API lists him with 64 goals, 74 assists and 138 points in the regular season.
Bellemare Leaves With French NHL Mark
The counting stats were only part of Bellemare's route. He came to North America late by NHL standards, joining the Philadelphia Flyers as an international free agent before the 2014-15 season, when he was 29.
He played three seasons with Philadelphia, then became part of the Vegas Golden Knights' first roster through the 2017 expansion draft. PHR noted that he had six goals and 16 points in 72 games during Vegas' first regular season, then added three assists in 20 playoff games during the club's run to the 2018 Stanley Cup Final.
Bellemare later played for the Colorado Avalanche, Tampa Bay Lightning and Seattle Kraken. His final NHL season came with Seattle in 2023-24, when the NHL API credits him with four goals, three assists and seven points in 40 games.
Postseason Run Included 85 Games
Bellemare's playoff footprint was larger than most fourth-line resumes. The NHL API lists him with 85 postseason games, five goals and 15 points, while PHR noted stops in multiple deep playoff runs with Vegas and Tampa Bay.
Before and after his NHL years, Bellemare's career stretched across Europe. PHR traced his path from Rouen in France to Skelleftea AIK in Sweden, where he developed into a productive secondary scorer before the Flyers signed him.
He spent the past two years with HC Ajoie in Switzerland's National League and also played for Team France at the 2026 Winter Olympics. That gives the retirement a cleaner endpoint: Bellemare did not simply drift off an NHL roster, he closed a long international career.