Recruit Report: Parker Lalonde leads the BCHL in goals

Photo: Brooks Bandits

Merrimack recruit Parker Lalonde leads the BCHL with 13 goals through 15 games.

Lalonde is projected to finish the BCHL season with 47 goals and 25 assists in 54 games. He finished last season with 80 points (30g-50a) in 65 games while the Bandits split the season between the AJHL and BCHL.

Lalonde scored this weekend on a stretch pass from teammate Ethan Beyer, a defenseman who is also a Merrimack commit.

Beyer and Lalonde are both projected to arrive at Merrimack next season, and they’re part of a class Neutral Zone currently has ranked No. 8 in the country.

The Warriors are currently projected for five straight top-20 classes through 2027, with three of those classes projected for the top-10.

Merrimack’s first top-10 class was 2019. The classes from 2020-22 were ranked lower in part because of size (the 2019 class was large, and the 2020-22 classes were smaller because of that). The 2019 class included some core pieces of the team that went to the NCAA Tournament in 2022 (Ben Brar, Filip Forsmark, Liam Dennison, Mac Welsher), plus some players who left the program through the portal (Liam Walsh) and signing NHL deals (Declan Carlile and Zach Uens).

Here is a full history (with future projections) of Merrimack’s recruiting classes via Neutral Zone records:

• 2016: #51

• 2017: #46

• 2018: #33

• 2019: #7

• 2020: #49

• 2021: #44

• 2022: #51

• 2023: #20

• 2024: #8

• 2025: #7 (current rank)

• 2026: #12 (current rank)

• 2027: #9 (current rank)

Here’s this week’s recruit report, with a full statistical update on all players:

Note: Projected enrollment dates are in the left column. However, these are my projections. Projected 2025 enrollments are in the top tab. The only guaranteed enrollments are Parker LaLonde and Ethan Beyer, because they age out of juniors next season.