French left winger Pierre-Édouard Bellemare has signed to play with HC Ajoie for the remainder of the current season, the National League club announced on Thursday.
Earlier in the day, French website Planète Hockey announced that the 39-year-old had already signed with an unspecified Swiss team, and then later added. Later, many French media outlets began reporting that the team was, in fact, Ajoie.
Bellemare’s last contract was with the Seattle Kraken last season. He attended the training camp of the Colorado Avalanche this year but was released from his try out on Oct 3.
Before training camp, Bellemare was captain of the French team at an Olympic qualifying tournament in Riga, Latvia. As the highest-finishing second-place team, France will qualify for the 2026 Winter Olympics in the event Russia does not participate.
Although Bellemare has represented France at 10 top-level IIHF World Championships, he has never played in the Olympics but has expressed a desire to do so.
Bellemare joins an Ajoie team that includes fellow French national team players Thomas Thiry and Kevin Bozon, former NHL defenseman T.J. Brennan and Carolina Hurricanes defense prospect Anttoni Honka.
In the same press release, Ajoie announced that Canadian Greg Ireland would take over as the team’s head coach startng Nov 7.
Ajoie has only two regulation wins in 17 games this season and currently sits last in the National League standings.