ITHACA, N.Y. — Freshman forward Justin Ertel and freshman defenseman Hank Kempf have yet to don carnelian red and white, but they now know the colors they’re aiming to wear following their Cornell men’s hockey careers.
Ertel was selected by the Dallas Stars and Kempf was picked by the New York Rangers on Saturday afternoon during the second and final day of the 2021 NHL Entry Draft. Both will have their professional rights protected by the respective teams that have selected them throughout their NCAA careers.
A native of Mississauga, Ontario, Ertel becomes the latest in a fledgling line of power forwards to blaze a path from St. Andrew’s College to Cornell and the NHL draft after the Dallas Stars nabbed him in the third round with the 79th overall pick. Morgan Barron ’21 followed an identical route on his way to the New York Rangers, and junior Matthew Stienburg is on a similar trajectory after also being selected in the third round of the draft by the Colorado Avalanche.
Now the fourth St. Andrew’s product to join the Big Red over the last five season, Ertel racked up 120 points on 51 goals and 69 assists in 68 games at St. Andrew’s after coming up through the Mississauga Senators and Toronto Red Wings AAA programs. With the 2020-21 season for the Conference of Independent Schools Athletic Association canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ertel accrued 28 points in 18 games with the Summerside Western Capitals of the Maritime Junior A Hockey League.
Ertel, whose stock shot up since he was ranked 150th among North American skaters eligible for the draft by the league’s Central Scouting Bureau, is the second Cornellian to be drafted by the Dallas Stars — joining Raymond Sawada ’08. The organization had three other Big Red selections before its southern migration, when it was the Minnesota North Stars.
A few hours later, Kempf was selected by the Rangers in the seventh round with the 208th overall pick. Standing at 6-foot-2 and weighing 200 pounds, Kempf was a shutdown defender in his two full seasons in the United States Hockey League, have been selected to the circuit’s second all-star team following the truncated 2020-21 season. He sported a plus-21 rating with four goals and 24 assists for 28 points over 81 career USHL games.
Kempf was selected to compete in the 2021 BioSteel All-American Game and also has international experience with USA Hockey. He also has bloodlines tied to the Big Red, as he is the cousin of Stephen Bâby ’03 — a Cornell Athletics Hall of Fame inductee and All-American who scored 115 points over his Big Red career.
The Rangers are no strangers to Cornell, as Kempf’s selection marks the sixth time the Blueshirts have drafted a Cornellian — the most of any NHL team. Most recently, the Big Red helped develop Barron into a power forward that ascended all the way to the NHL ranks in his first professional season after the Rangers drafted him in 2017.
