Parker Burgess knew the kind of talent he was getting when Tynan Lawrence arrived in Muskegon before the 2024-25 season. Lawrence had recorded 142 points in 106 games the previous two years, and you don’t do that at powerhouse Minnesota prep school Shattuck-St. Mary’s by accident.
What Burgess didn’t know was the kind of hockey player he was getting. Lawrence had just turned 16, and 16-year-olds are usually balls of clay, not finished products. Especially when they take on the USHL for the first time.
“You would think a 16-year-old with his skillset, you’d have to rein him in. You think, ‘Oh, this guy’s going to cheat for offense. And his habits, his details, his compete without the puck — there’s going to be a lot of work there,’” Burgess, Lawrence’s head coach at Muskegon in 2024-25, told me.
Instead, Burgess found that Lawrence almost cared too much about the defensive zone. He was too willing to forecheck his ass off, too mindful to play on the right side of the puck. Burgess won’t go so far as to say Lawrence sacrificed offense. But Muskegon’s coaches, during a season in which Lawrence led the Lumberjacks to their first Clark Cup, had to push their superstar to take more risks offensively.
“And those,” Burgess told me, “are the type of players that you want.”
Lawrence is also — nearly two years after his USHL debut — the type of player BU needs. Desperately. Lawrence’s arrival at Agganis Arena in January, a half-season ahead of schedule, certainly hasn’t changed the Terriers’ season. But on Wednesday night, his presence did help save it. The second-youngest player in college hockey didn’t do that by sniping the top corner of Aiden Wright’s net or weaving through multiple Vermont defenders.
He did it on the forecheck, blocking an attempted clearance in the Catamounts’ defensive zone before wrestling through an opponent to the loose puck. The reward for his hard work: a wide-open Cole Eiserman, who Lawrence calmly set up for a game-winning, third-period tally in a do-or-die Hockey East first round at Agganis Arena.
It wasn’t flashy. But that’s not who Lawrence is.
“Growing up, I always tried to be the hardest worker. Always move your feet. Never take a shift off,” Lawrence said, in his first press conference since joining BU. “It’s been a part of me, and it keeps growing inside of me as I’ve gotten older.”
Jay Pandolfo has spent the better part of his fourth season in charge criticizing the effort and consistency of his players. On a shiny roster full of high-end skill, the Terriers have been exposed for their lack of grime. Their inability to get their hands dirty; their unwillingness to put a puck in deep and grind to get it back; their refusal to push shift after shift, period after period. Pandolfo knows this, and he knew what Lawrence would provide after what Pandolfo said was a mutual decision to bring the Fredericton, New Brunswick native in midseason.
“He just keeps playing,” Pandolfo said in February. “That’s what I like about him.”
That hasn’t exactly rubbed off on his teammates during Lawrence’s 17 collegiate games. Still, on a team battling chronic inconsistency, the 17-year-old has been one of Pandolfo’s few reliably impactful forwards. When BU’s play deteriorated in the second period on Wednesday, as it so often has, Lawrence remained willing to forecheck below Vermont’s goal and manage the puck in the neutral zone (he got away with a brutal defensive-zone turnover, but it was caused by a phantom slip, not a decision with the puck). The Terriers weren’t much better to start the third… until Lawrence got dirty again and created BU’s second goal. Just over 10 minutes later, the Terriers led 4-1.
“That’s the type of play he’s going to make — create a turnover, then make a nice pass to the slot,” Pandolfo said. “That was huge, at a critical moment for our team.”
Lawrence told the assembled media he was simply following the game plan, something these Terriers have made look about as far from simple as a hockey team can in 2025-26. Just four days prior, BU was entirely unwilling to do that in the regular-season finale at UMass Lowell. The Terriers were predictably beaten, 4-3. Pandolfo said on Wednesday that Lawrence was the “one guy” who provided a 60-minute effort in that Saturday defeat.
Lawrence’s assist was only his fifth NCAA point. Much will surely be made of that as June’s NHL Draft nears — Lawrence arrived at BU as a projected top-10 pick, and one school of thought was that the appeal for Lawrence and his camp to leave Muskegon early was to make a push to go No. 1. Nearly two months later, he’s got one goal. Penn State’s Gavin McKenna, another forward in that conversation, recorded more points in a single game a few weeks ago than Lawrence has in 17. It’d be hard to argue that won’t affect his stock.
But it isn’t all about the draft. Lawrence might not hear his name called first in Buffalo, but he’s made BU better, as much as one guy playing once every four shifts can.
“Tynan just cares so much about winning,” Burgess told me.