Pierre-Édouard Bellemare Sees His PTO Come to an End

At the age of 39, is this it for Pierre-Édouard Bellemare? The Colorado Avalanche have released PEB from his PTO.

We have announced today that forward Pierre-Edouard Bellemare has been released from his PTO.
— Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) October 3, 2024

The 4th liner might not have another NHL team waiting to hand him a job, but the French native has already said earlier in the summer that he wasn't ready for retirement just yet, and had alternate plans to potentially head back overseas.

He didn't arrive in the NHL until his age 29 season, and before that had spent five seasons with Skelleftea AIK in Sweden, including back-to-back championships in his final two years there. He hinted that a return to Skelleftea could be his fallback.

What will likely be his final season in North America, 2023-24, saw Bellemare register his lowest ice time in his NHL career, at only 9:50 TOI. He recorded just seven points in 40 games with the Seattle Kraken while being a frequent healthy scratch.

Overall, in his decade on this side of the pond, he recorded 138 points in 700 games with a plus/minus rating of +22 in 12:33 average ice time per night. He made it to two Stanley Cup Finals (2018 with the Vegas Golden Knights and 2022 with the Tampa Bay Lightning).