June 5, 2018
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - A pair of recent men's ice hockey graduates will continue their playing careers overseas for the 2018-19 campaign as both James Robinson (Cochrane, Alberta) and Erik Autio (Espoo, Finland) each inked professional contracts earlier this spring.
Autio will be heading back home to Finland joining former Nittany Lion teammate David Goodwin '17 on Liiga-Saipa Oy of the SM-liiga, Finnish Elite League. In his first season with SaiPa, Goodwin finished with 10 goals and 19 assists for 29 points helping the team to a 32-20 record in 2017-18.
Autio ends his time in Hockey Valley as the second-leading all-time scoring defenseman in program history with 58 points while his 50 assists are the most by any Nittany Lion blue-liner and are tied for the third most in program history behind Goodwin's 84 and junior Chase Berger's (St. Louis, Mo.) 52. Autio's 138 games played also rank third all-time in program history.
"After four great years at Penn State I am excited to return home to start my professional career," commented Autio. "I want to thank all my teammates and the entire coaching staff for helping prepare me for this next step in my hockey career."
Robinson will also link up with a former Penn State playing companion as he will join Tommy Olczyk '16 in France as members of the HC Cergy-Pontoise. The Jokers play in France's Division I league.
The Alberta native served as team captain in 2017-18 and had a career-year for Guy Gadwosky's squad scoring six goals, including a hat-trick against Mercyhurst, while adding five assists for 11 points. Robinson concluded his time at Penn State playing in 96 games scoring 13 goals while adding 10 assists.
"Without the resources provided to me by Penn State my dream of playing professional hockey wouldn't have been possible," mentioned Robinson. "I owe everything to the school, my coaches, my teammates and everyone else who has contributed to my success."