Color of Hockey: Rangers prospect Emery 'comfortable' heading to North Dakota

William Douglas has been writing The Color of Hockey blog since 2012. Douglas joined NHL.com in 2019 and writes about people of color in the sport. Today, he profiles New York Rangers prospect EJ Emery and his decision to play for the University of North Dakota, becoming its first Black player in more than three decades.

When EJ Emery talks about his decision to play for the University of North Dakota and become its first Black player in more than 30 years, the word “comfortable” comes up often.

“I just felt comfortable there,” the 18-year-old defenseman said June 28 after being selected by the New York Rangers with the No. 30 pick in the 2024 NHL Draft at Sphere in Las Vegas. “The coaches and the fans, and obviously the team, made me feel at home and I know they’re going to look out for me.”

Perhaps that comfort zone comes from the unique ties between the USA Hockey National Team Development Program, which Emery has been a part of the past two seasons, and the university in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

It all starts with his father, Eric Emery.

Born in Shreveport, Louisiana, and raised in Compton, California, the elder Emery played football for California State University, Fullerton from 1982-84 under coach Gene Murphy.

Murphy played quarterback for North Dakota from 1960-62 and was its coach from 1978-79. He left a lasting impression on Eric Emery, especially after Cal Fullerton went 12-0 in 1984. Murphy died Oct. 29, 2011.

“I guess I kind of transported into EJ the sense of respect I have for Gene Murphy and what he did for us at Cal Fullerton,” said the elder Emery, who went on to become a linebacker for the BC Lions, Calgary Stampeders and Ottawa Rough Riders of the Canadian Football League from 1985-87.

“He brought us together and he actually told us that we were going to be champions because he saw the capability in us. I just had to have him (EJ) go look at North Dakota because Gene came from there and a lot of his coaches that he brought with him came from there and they were such good guys. So I figured North Dakota must have something going on.”

There’s also a North Dakota connection between the younger Emery and NTDP Under-18 team coach Nick Fohr, who was born and raised in Grand Forks and regularly attended UND games with his father, Roger, who was an off-ice official right up until when he died of cancer in January 2023.

“Oh yeah, we talked about it for sure,” Fohr said. “Pretty cool place for me and it’s pretty cool to have somebody like EJ interested in that place.

“When people think of an EJ Emery, a Black kid that's looking to play hockey, rarely are they going to place him in North Dakota, right? We had some really good conversations about the city, the town and what it’s like. From talking to EJ and his family, they (UND) did a really, really, really good job in the recruiting process in making him feel comfortable, letting him see what it’s like and meeting some football players and other people. It just felt like home to him is how I took it.”

North Dakota hockey coach Brad Berry said Emery had been on the team’s radar since he played for Yale Hockey Academy in Abbotsford, British Columbia, in 2021-22.

“When we got to the recruiting process, he got to know us, we got to know him and it felt comfortable,” Berry said. “When we recruit players, we have a criteria of what we want in a player: It doesn’t matter where you come from or who you are. It matters what you are as a person, and he checked every box that we had.”

Emery (6-foot-3, 183 pounds) is UND’s first Black player since Akil Adams, a defenseman who played 18 games from 1992-94.

North Dakota has had diverse rosters since. Washington Capitals forward T.J. Oshie, a United States-born player who is Indigenous, played there from 2005-08. Center Jordan Kawaguchi, a Canada-born player of Japanese ancestry, played for UND from 2017-21 and was team captain in his final season.

Emery's selection by the Rangers and commitment to North Dakota delighted Adams, who played in the minor leagues and Germany after he left the university.

“I’m still a North Dakota guy through and through,” said Adams, who lives in Detroit. “He’s definitely in the right place and I’m happy to see that there’s actually somebody else there. I just think it probably speaks volumes about the kind of player he is.”

A dual Canada-U.S. citizen, Emery had 16 assists in 61 games for the NTDP U-18 team last season and 28 points (two goals, 26 assists) in 121 games in his two seasons with the program. He had six assists in seven games for the silver medal-winning U.S. in the 2024 IIHF Under-18 World Junior Championship and his plus-15 rating put him in a three-way tie for the best in the tournament.

Summer has been a whirlwind for Emery since the draft. He went straight from Las Vegas to New York to attend Rangers development camp July 2-5.

“Development camp was awesome,” he said. “You're training against guys that are playing pro hockey and you're working with them and getting a taste of what a day in the life of being a pro is like.”

Emery is on campus taking summer courses at UND and preparing for a season that begins Oct. 12 with the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame game against Providence in Grand Forks.

“My main goal, main focus, is to win a national championship and do whatever the team needs to do to do that,” he said. “Everyone on this team is thinking the same way, just having the mindset of getting better every day and do whatever it takes to go as far as possible.”