PARIS — Pierre-Edouard Bellemare was understandably the most excited among the 19 players at the NHL European Player Media Tour in Paris on Wednesday.
Born in the Paris suburb of Le Blanc-Mesnil, the Tampa Bay Lightning forward normally returns to the City of Lights once a year with his family to visit his sister. But like everyone else, he didn’t travel much the past two offseasons because of the coronarius pandemic.
So having the NHL use Paris for the first time as the European site to promote its upcoming season was a welcome opportunity for Bellemare to come home and bring more attention to the sport he loves in his native country.
“I think it’s pretty cool. I love it,” Bellemare said. “The only downside of it is the French media is not aware. I would’ve loved to have French media so we could use it also for growing the game in France because it’s needed.”
Bellemare, who lives in Skelleftea, Sweden, in the offseason, is one of three players born in France who played in the NHL last season, along with Columbus Blue Jackets forward Alexandre Texier and Arizona Coyotes forward Antoine Roussel. He’s one of 13 born in the country to play in the NHL in its history.
With hockey rarely in the spotlight in France, the NHL is exploring ways to change that. In fact, the European Player Media Tour might be the start of the League having more of a presence here.
“Part of the reason we decided to come to Paris was in part another short summer, and we’re asking our players to make a commitment to capture media content to promote the game,” Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said. “In making that request you want to pick a location in Europe that players want to spend time in and bring guests to. Part of it is about accommodating player interests, but do we have an interest in making hockey bigger in France in general? Of course , we do.
“That starts at the grassroots level, more participation in hockey.”
It could eventually lead to an NHL game in Paris.
“Obviously a very mature, wealthy economy here in Paris,” Deputy Commissioner Daly said. “It would be great to bring teams over here at some point in the future and play a game. Probably a preseason game at first, but that’s certainly on the radar screen, although maybe a longer-term radar.”
Video: Follow Bellemare on European Player Media Tour
Although Paris may not have a ready-made NHL fanbase, it wouldn’t be the first time the League played in a non-traditional European hockey market. The Los Angeles Kings and the Anaheim Ducks, who were the reigning Stanley Cup champions at the time, opened the 2007-08 regular season with a pair of games in London.
Those were the first NHL regular-season games played in Europe and each was a sellout. Bellemare believes a preseason game in Paris would draw similarly.
“I think the rink would probably be full,” he said. “People would book way ahead because the game is not big, but it would just put hockey on the map in France. At the end of the day, what I’m doing, what Roussel is doing or what Texier is doing, we’ re just trying to make sure that people see that there is a possibility to end up in the NHL. There is a possibility to live out the dream.”
Living that dream was challenging for Bellemare, who moved to Montpellier in southern France when he was 3 and returned to Le Blanc-Mesnil when he was 11. Playing hockey made Bellemare an oddity and teachers would sometimes tell him, “You’re not going to be able to make it, so you might as well quit now.”
That stopped after Bellemare made France’s top professional league with Rouen in 2002-03 when he was 17. In 2006, he signed with Leksands IF, which played in Allsvenskan, Sweden’s second division. He signed with Skelleftea in the Swedish Hockey League in 2009, which led to his first NHL contract with the Philadelphia Flyers in 2014.
Bellemare was 29 when he joined the Flyers. In eight NHL seasons, the 37-year-old forward has 118 points (56 goals, 62 assists) in 587 regular-season games with the Flyers, Vegas Golden Knights, Colorado Avalanche and Lightning and 13 points (four goals, nine assists). in 79 Stanley Cup Playoff games.
“When I was a kid, the only time you would see the NHL was on TV, and that would never happen,” Bellemare said. “The only thing you would see was the Olympic Games every four years. So that’s why I never grew up thinking about the NHL or dreaming about it. I never cared about it because it wasn’t something you could achieve.
“Now, it’s really easy with the internet to be able to watch an NHL game every time they’re on.”
Bellemare believes easier access to NHL games has fueled more interest in the sport. Playing an NHL game in Paris would provide a bigger spark.
“If there was an NHL game, it would bring media to the game,” Bellemare said. “Media would bring money to hockey, and that will give the possibilities of reusable equipment. … A little bit more money into hockey would bring more possibilities for the federation to bring equipment to each team so that they could invite people to try it.
“And as soon as you play it, you get stung by the game 100 percent.”
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