{"id":461538,"date":"2026-02-18T02:34:23","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T02:34:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/461538\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T02:34:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T02:34:23","slug":"this-is-it-bellemare-retires-following-frances-olympic-elimination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/461538\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;This Is It&#8217;: Bellemare Retires Following France&#8217;s Olympic Elimination"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Pierre-Edouard Bellemare hasn\u2019t played in the NHL since the 2023-24 season. But after France fell 5-1 to Germany in an Olympic elimination game on Tuesday, the 40-year-old former Avalanche forward announced his retirement from professional hockey entirely.<\/p>\n<p>Bellemare scored France\u2019s lone goal, becoming the fourth-oldest player to ever find the back of the net in an Olympics with NHL participation. He trails only Teemu Selanne, Daniel Alfredsson, and Jaromir Jagr.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is it,\u201d Bellemare told reporters in Italy.<\/p>\n<p>The journeyman center didn\u2019t crack the NHL until the age of 29. He began his career in Philadelphia, where he played three full seasons with the Flyers. After being selected in the 2017 expansion draft, Bellemare went on to suit up for the Vegas Golden Knights for two seasons.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Pierre-Edouard Bellemare says, \u201cThis is it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Asked if he could play in 2030 \u2014 when France hosts \u2014 Bellemare said physically, he feels he could, but he owes it to his family to stop. <\/p>\n<p>No more moving around, deciding which toys his young children can keep; allowing his wife to\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/pHJkghqdtw\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/pHJkghqdtw<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FriedgeHNIC\/status\/2023766690136224001?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">February 17, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>In first year with the Golden Knights, Bellemare made the Stanley Cup Final before falling to the Washington Capitals in five games.<\/p>\n<p>After his second season, he joined the Avalanche on a two-year contract as an unrestricted free agent, becoming the staple of the fourth line. Bellemare spent most of his time paired with winger Matt Calvert and was a key penalty kill contributor.<\/p>\n<p>He scored nine goals both in 2019-20 and 2020-21, which ties his career-high for goals in a single season. In 2020, he also had career bests in assists (13) and points (22), compiling those totals in just 69 games before COVID abruptly ended the regular season.<\/p>\n<p>Bellemare then signed on with the Tampa Bay Lightning, and faced the Avalanche in 2022 Stanley Cup Final. In that series, he was the center of Tampa\u2019s fourth line on an all-veteran line with wingers Patrick Maroon and Corey Perry.<\/p>\n<p>For the second time in his career, he was unsuccessful in the Cup Final, this time falling in six games.<\/p>\n<p>Bellemare\u2019s last sniff of the NHL was back with the Avs. He signed a professional tryout and took part in Colorado\u2019s training camp in October 2024. He was one of the last cuts, failing to earn a contract to extend a 700-game NHL career.<\/p>\n<p>He quickly shifted and played two years in Switzerland\u2019s national league, allowing him to partake in the Olympics for France. Bellemare served as the captain.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.paypal.com\/paypalme\/colhockeynow\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/CHNS-Tip-Jar.png\" alt=\"Contribute to CHN's travel and support local journalism!\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pierre-Edouard Bellemare hasn\u2019t played in the NHL since the 2023-24 season. But after France fell 5-1 to Germany&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5116],"tags":[193,192,144,5277,58,5,4,26690],"class_list":["post-461538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-colorado-avalanche","tag-avalanche","tag-colorado","tag-colorado-avalanche","tag-coloradoavalanche","tag-featured","tag-hockey","tag-nhl","tag-pierre-edouard-bellemare"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116089303793719416","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}