Pierre-Edouard Bellemare didn’t make it to the NHL until he was 29 years old, and he still carved out a decade-long career.
His much-longer hockey journey ended on Tuesday at the 2026 Winter Olympics, where Bellemare is now 40 years old and represented France.
A loss to Germany ended the tourney for the French team, and their captain said afterward, “This is it.”
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare says, “This is it.”
Asked if he could play in 2030 — when France hosts — Bellemare said physically, he feels he could, but he owes it to his family to stop.
No more moving around, deciding which toys his young children can keep; allowing his wife to… pic.twitter.com/pHJkghqdtw
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) February 17, 2026
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Bellemare’s NHL career began in 2014-15 with the Philadelphia Flyers.
He played three seasons with the Flyers, then two with the Vegas Golden Knights, two with the Colorado Avalanche, two with the Tampa Bay Lightning and one with the Seattle Kraken.
His last NHL action came in the 2023-24 season with Seattle.
Bellemare played in exactly 700 games in the NHL. He had 64 goals and 74 assists (138 points). He also tallied 615 hits and 502 blocked shots.
For the past couple seasons, Bellemare has played for HC Ajoie in Switzerland.
He first began playing professionally in 2002-03 when he was 17 in France’s top league.
Bellemare then spent nearly a decade in Sweden’s top-two divisions before earning an NHL contract.
He was considered a high-level defensive forward and a reliable penalty killer, and he was an expansion draft pick by Vegas who made it to the Stanley Cup final there.
Now, after a long and winding hockey career filled with a lot of cool moments, Bellemare is hanging his skates up for the final time.