Born in Montréal in 1933, Hervé Lalonde began his ice hockey career playing for the Galt Black Hawks in 1952 as a junior. This was followed by a couple of seasons at the Trois-Rivieres Reds, also as a junior, before Lalonde joined the Baltimore Clippers in 1954. He finished his playing career with the Charlotte Clippers in the Eastern Hockey League. Lalonde then turned to coaching where he worked with the Maisonneuve Braves in the Manitoba Major Junior Hockey League. In 1964 he was appointed the head coach of the Swiss national ice hockey team at the Innsbruck Olympics.