He started his junior hockey career in 1969–70 with the Sarnia Bees of OHA Western Jr. B league.
Lochead scored 16 goals as a rookie with the Wings in 1974–75 while playing on a line with Bill Hogaboam and Nick Libett.
He continued to contribute as a role player for four and a half years which saw his point producing rise as Lochead gained confidence.
He finally hit the 20-goal mark in the 1977–78 NHL season, helping the club to reach the playoffs for the first time in eight years.
Playing on a line with Dale McCourt and Paul Woods, the Red Wings defeated the Atlanta Flames in the first round of the playoffs and Lochead scored two goals in the deciding 3–2 win at Olympia Stadium.
In the off-season he was traded to the New York Rangers but ended up appearing in only seven games that season as he spent most of the year with the New Haven Nighthawks of the American Hockey League.
Lochead contributed strongly to the Nighthawks in playoff scoring that year, but the team fell in the semi-finals to the eventual champion Hershey Bears.
He finished out the season with 43 goals in 39 games and contributed 5 points in Kaufbeuren's short playoff run.
In the spring of 1986 he was chosen to play for the Dave King coached Team Canada in the Pravda Cup tournament in Leningrad (now St.Petersburg, Russia).
After short stints with Chur of the Schweizerischer Eishockeyverband and the Vienna Capitals of the Austrian Hockey League, Lochead retired from the ice after the 1987–88 season.