- Bellemare retired in June at 41, then joined the Lightning as a player development specialist
- The undrafted Frenchman debuted at 29 and played 700 NHL games, the most by any France-born and trained player
- Read below for what he says he still had left and the job waiting for him in France
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare stopped playing hockey. He never stopped believing he could.
The 41-year-old sat down with NHL.com’s William Douglas for a Q&A published Monday and was asked what made the decision to retire so hard:
“In my heart, I love the game. I love to compete. And there is this will of proving people wrong … Everybody seemed to think, ‘You’re 40 years old, you have to stop playing the game.’ I don’t think so if you take care of yourself. If you have pretty good discipline, you can still compete with the young guys. My heart wants to show that to people.”
The logic side won. Bellemare said he and his wife have been together 17 years and have moved almost every two seasons, and their two kids needed somewhere to stay put.
He gave Elliotte Friedman a version of the same answer back in February, minutes after Germany bounced France out of the Milano Cortina Olympics:
Bellemare made it official on June 18, after a final season of 37 games with HC Ajoie in Switzerland.
Three weeks later he was back inside an NHL building. Tampa Bay hired him as a player development specialist on July 9, putting him on JP Cote’s staff with the forward prospects and with Syracuse of the AHL.
None of those kids will have a resume like the guy teaching them. Born in Le Blanc-Mesnil, Bellemare went undrafted, made the Flyers as a 29-year-old rookie in 2014-15 and finished with 700 NHL games, the most by any player born and trained in France.
He was asked what he hopes to pass along to Lightning prospects:
“I was undrafted, 29 years old, coming from the ghettos, and I ended up playing 700 games, so it is a doable thing. But there was sacrifice.”
Ten NHL seasons took him through Philadelphia, Tampa Bay, Vegas, Colorado and Seattle for 138 points. Two of those stops ended in the Stanley Cup Final, and both still bother him. Vegas losing in 2018 stung because of what the city had been through the previous October, and by 2022 with the Lightning he was playing hurt and knew it.
His phone has already rung from home. France hosts the 2028 World Championship in Paris and Lyon and the 2030 Olympics in the French Alps, and the national team asked whether he wants a role in either.
Bellemare said he would be proud to help, with one catch:
“But now, I have to ask Tampa first to see what it is that I would be allowed to do. It’s not just me now, right? I was retired and now I’m going back into work.”
Twelve years after a 29-year-old rookie talked his way into the league, Bellemare is the one handing out the directions.
