Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper might have seen the signs in Pierre-Edouard Bellemare before anyone else, including Bellemare himself.
The Lightning on Thursday announced the hiring of Bellemare as a player development specialist. The former Bolts forward will work alongside Director of Player Development JP Cote and Syracuse Crunch staff to develop forward prospects.
It’s a new chapter for the 41-year-old, who retired this summer after 700 NHL games, more than two decades of professional hockey and leading France at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics.
Bellemare had never considered coaching as a post-playing career until such offers arose repeatedly late into his on-ice days following a Cooper comment during Bellemare’s time as a Bolt.
“As soon as I turned 34, literally every place that I've been there was always talk about ‘Would you want to coach after playing’ because Coop, I think, answered in an interview when I was with Tampa, saying, ‘One of the guys who is kind of ready for coaching would be Belly.’
“That opened some conversations with the media on if I’d like to coach. I didn’t want to travel as much as a coach does, but later on I don’t see why not really. When the team came and talked to me about this position and told me what the job was about, I got really interested. And then it was just the fact of thinking about doing this in Tampa, it’s awesome.”
As Bellemare alluded, multiple NHL teams inquired about adding him to their hockey operations group or coaching staff in recent years. Now, it’s a reality in Tampa.
A ‘perfect’ conclusion
Bellemare wrapped up his playing career this past season for HC Ajoie in the Swiss National League, and his focus remained on-ice in preparation of representing France at the Olympics.
Bellemare captained France in February, a “perfect” punctuation to a trailblazing on-ice career in French hockey. He stands as the nation’s all-time leader in NHL games played and ranks second in goals, assists and points.
Bellemare finished the Olympics with a goal while averaging 18:24 of ice time over four games.
“It was perfect,” he said of the Olympics. “At the end of the day, we fought with our values. We lost every game, but this is something that for me personally, I’ve chased for 24 years. I never dreamt about the NHL, but I’ve dreamt about the Olympics my whole life…I take a lot of pride to be able to wear the jersey, give back a little bit to my country and my national team for helping me become the man that I am now.”
When he decided to retire this summer, new career choices remained.
So, too, did his interest in returning to Tampa, where Bellemare played from 2021 to 2023 and reached the 2022 Stanley Cup Final.
“It was a perfect fit because we had planned to move back to Tampa with the family, and a couple years ago we talked about wouldn’t it be cool to be able to work with with the franchise here? And now I'm actually hired by the Lightning. I feel very privileged, very happy, and we're super excited.”
How Belly can help future Bolts
What can the Lightning expect when Bellemare is in a development chair instead of a locker room stall? A priority on teaching the importance of mentality while reminding prospects that it’s never too late to make it to the NHL.
It could be argued no one knows that thought process better—Bellemare signed with the Philadelphia Flyers as a free agent in 2014 and made his NHL debut at 29 years old. He turned that chance into a 10-year NHL career, one created by an intense focus.
“Not every one of the kids that I'm going to talk to is a first round pick. So if you want to make it, it's going to take an extra amount of work, but then an attitude that makes you understand that if you work it will pay off eventually. I got there when I was almost 30 and I played until I was 39, so it's a doable thing,” Bellemare said.
Bellemare pointed to the way Lightning forward Brandon Hagel approaches the game as a good current example for young players.
“You look at Hagel. He’s not the biggest guy, right? He has the talent, has all of that. But his attitude on the ice is just something different. It doesn't matter that he's not gonna have Nikita Kucherov’s hands or anything. He's having a hell of a career because of that attitude that he has where he just doesn’t want to get beat.”
Tampa was always attractive to Bellemare as a great city to live in, and he has always treasured the relationships he built within the Lightning organization and community.
Those relationships are about to grow further, an idea that provokes deep feelings for Bellemare.
He was a trailblazer as an undrafted French hockey player, and now he gets to help future Lightning players create paths of their own.
“The cool thing about it is that I'm going into a new line of work that, first of all, I never thought I was going to be able to do. I never thought that I could be a French person being hired by an NHL franchise. I mean, how cool is that,” he said. “And then it’s in a franchise as recognized and well-managed and all of the positive things you can say about the Lightning. I'm gonna go there with butterflies in my stomach, and I'm not sure of everything I'm gonna do. I'm gonna have to learn a bunch of new stuff, too, and that’s super exciting.”
