TAMPA BAY — The Tampa Bay Lightning hired recently retired forward Pierre-Edouard Bellemare as a player development specialist, vice president and general manager Julien BriseBois announced. The 41-year-old will work under JP Cote, focusing on forward prospects and spending time with the Syracuse Crunch staff and players.
Bellemare brings 700 career NHL games to the role, having suited up for the Philadelphia Flyers, Vegas Golden Knights, Colorado Avalanche, Seattle Kraken and the Lightning. He recorded 64 goals and 138 points across those stops. In 153 games for Tampa Bay from 2021 to 2023, Bellemare posted 13 goals, 33 points and a plus-15 rating.
A native of Le Blanc-Mesnil, France, Bellemare announced his retirement from hockey this summer after spending the 2025-26 season skating for HC Ajoie of the Swiss National League. He also represented France in four contests at the 2026 Olympic Winter Games, scoring one goal and averaging 18:24 of time on ice.
Bellemare’s path to the NHL was unconventional. He went undrafted and signed with Philadelphia as a free agent on March 2, 2015, launching a career that spanned more than a decade and five franchises. His transition to a development role with a team he played for gives the Lightning a staff member with firsthand knowledge of the organization’s systems and culture.
Bellemare joins a Lightning development pipeline that feeds through the Syracuse Crunch, the club’s American Hockey League affiliate, where he is expected to begin working with prospects ahead of the 2026-27 season.