Evansville, In.: The Evansville Thunderbolts and Head Coach/Director of Hockey Operations Jeff Bes are pleased to announce the re-signing of forward Logan vande Meerakker for the 2024-25 season. The Thunderbolts begin the 2024-25 season at Ford Center on Friday, October 18th as they host the Knoxville Ice Bears.
Following a 4 game stint in Fayetteville to begin his professional career, vande Meerakker was claimed off waivers by the Thunderbolts late in the 2023-24 season. Although he went pointless in 3 regular season games with Evansville, vande Meerakker’s play spiked in the postseason, scoring two goals and adding an assist in Evansville’s 5 playoff games. The native of Dieppe, New Brunswick played three seasons of junior hockey in Nova Scotia with the Pictou County Scotians and Crushers between 2017-2020 before beginning his collegiate career with Norwich University between 2020-2022 and Alvernia University between 2022-2024, scoring 24 goals and 69 points in 69 total games of collegiate play, and was named to the NCAA UCHC First All-Conference Team in his final college season.
Reflecting on his tenure with the Thunderbolts to this point, vande Meerakker commented: “I’ve loved my time in Evansville so far, the boys were awesome and made the experience better than I could have imagined. Last season did not end as we wanted it to, but we got a taste of what it takes to win in the playoffs, and that experience will be great for us as a team going into this season.” Vande Meerakker was clear in his response to what his goal is for the coming season: “I have one goal in mind for this season, and that is helping to bring a championship to Evansville.”
Vande Meerakker joins previously announced forwards Matthew Hobbs and Derek Contessa, along with defensemen Benjamin Lindberg and Gehrig Lindberg on the roster heading into training camp.
