When Arizona State released its men's hockey roster for the 2020-21 season on Thursday, there was one notable omission: Forward Austin Lemieux.
Mario Lemieux's son.
On Thursday night, the Sun Devils announced that Lemieux had retired from hockey to pursue a career in professional golf:
Best of luck to Austin as he pursues his passion in golf! pic.twitter.com/kbTs7UyGde
— Sun Devil Hockey (@SunDevilHockey) September 4, 2020
"Austin made the decision to stay back East and work on accomplishing his goal of becoming a professional golfer," head coach Greg Powers told The State Press. "He made tremendous contributions to our program and [we] support him in everything he decides to do.”
Lemieux, 24, spent the last two seasons playing for the Sun Devils after redshirting for his first year at Arizona State. He scored seven goals and 20 assists in a combined -- wait for it -- 66 games over those two seasons.
Lemieux didn't play golf in college, but he did play golf at the amateur level in Pennsylvania.
Both Austin and Mario Lemieux made pitches to Austin's Arizona State teammate, the highly-coveted free agent defenseman Josh Maniscalco, Maniscalco told me after he signed this summer.
In Austin's pitch -- now the only assist he'll ever earn for the Penguins in his hockey career -- he told Maniscalco that the two could play golf together if he ends up in Pittsburgh.
“We were teammates the past two years,” Maniscalco told me of Austin. “He reached out to me. He’s an awesome guy, awesome family that he comes from. He was like, ‘Hey, we’d love to have you in Pittsburgh, but you’ve got to do what’s best for you,’ that kind of stuff. He’s like, ‘If you decide Pittsburgh, we’ll get together and play a couple of rounds of golf here and there.’ Austin’s an awesome guy.”
