Kemptville 73's

Kemptville 73's
Division	Robinson
Founded	1969
History	Kemptville Comets 1969–1973 Kemptville 73's 1973–present
Home arena	North Grenville Municipal Centre
City	North Grenville, Ontario
Team colors	Red, black, white
Media	FloSports
Owner(s)	Jason York Joe Jefferies Paul LeBreux
General manager	Terry Nichols
Head coach	Shawn Fensel
Official website	www.kemptville73s.com

The Kemptville 73's are a Junior A ice hockey team based in North Grenville, Ontario. The 73's compete in the Central Canada Hockey League (CCHL) as a member of the Robinson Division, which is the west division of the league. The club was founded as the Kemptville Comets in the Eastern Ontario Junior Hockey League (EOJHL) in 1969. The Comets changed their name to the 73's in 1973 to coincide with that year. In 2007, they moved to the Central Junior A Hockey League, which rebranded to the Central Canada Hockey League in 2010. For their first 36 seasons in North Grenville, the 73's were based at the before-renovated North Grenville Municipal Arena in Kemptville. Before the 2005–06 season, the facility was rebuilt and expanded, and changed its name to the North Grenville Municipal Centre. The 73's are owned and managed by Jason Jork, Joe Jefferies and Paul LeBreux, with founder Shawn Fensel and Craig Whitten acquiring the team in 2020.

The franchise was poor to mediocre in the first eight years in the CCHL as they failed to make the Bogart Cup playoffs six times in eight seasons and never finished higher than fifth in their division, in which contained six teams. Their fortunes began to turn around following the hiring of the president and general manager Terry Nichols in 2012. They are one of the three current CCHL franchises to have never made any Bogart Cup Final appearances, and to have never won the Bogart Cup. Their best season occurred in 2025–26, in which they finished second in their division with a record of 36–16–3, and have lost in the semi-final round. When they were part of the EOJHL, the team has reached the finals multiple times including two championship victories in 1997 and 1999.

The 73's have a rivalry with their Highway 416 neighbor, the Brockville Braves, as well as a rivalry with the Carleton Place Canadians and the Smiths Falls Bears. The Carleton Place–Kemptville rivalry has been present since the 1969–70 season when they were a member of the Eastern Ontario Junior Hockey League, and have faced each other in the playoffs multiple times in their history. The 73's are the only ice hockey team in the Kemptville community, as well as the only sports team in the Municipality of North Grenville, billing themselves as solely representing the North Grenville township in any sport.

History

The team was founded in 1969 in the Eastern Ontario Junior B Hockey League along with the Carleton Place Canadians.

In the 1996–97 season, the 73's achieved an undefeated season with a record of 38–0–4 en route to the Eastern Ontario Junior B Hockey League championship. They repeated the championship victory in 1999.

The team moved up from the EOJBHL to the CJHL in 2007. On September 14, 2007, the team played their first ever Junior A hockey game at home. The 73's took on the Nepean Raiders and have lost the game 5–2. Anthony Scarpino scored the 73's first ever Junior A goal in the first period. Alex Beaudry started the historic game in net. The 73's won their first CJHL game by defeating the Kanata Stallions at home by a score of 4–2 on September 23, 2007. On April 8, 2008, Mark Nasca become the first 73 in history to commit to an NCAA Division I when he signed with the Colgate University Raiders for the 2008–09 season. A few months later, Rob Capellupo was announced as the head United States scout for bringing in players. He was also announced as the teams physical and psychological doctor.

During the summer of 2017, the 73's changed their ownership from Ron and Lisa Tugnutt to Jason York, Joe Jefferies and Paul LeBreux. The ownership group expanded in 2020, when Shawn Fensel and Craig Whitten joined the group. In 2023, Fensel left the ownership group to become the team's head coach. Since 2018, the ownership group decided for the team to play an annual family day home game on a Sunday afternoon each February at the North Grenville Municipal Centre. This quickly became the 73's most popular game in the regular season, attracting over 800 people at the annual game, and 1,350 fans attending the 2023 edition.

Season-by-season record

Season	GP	W	L	T	OTL	GF	GA	PTS	Finish	Playoffs
1999–00	45	32	10	-	3	218	127	68	1st in EO St. Lawr	Lost Final
2000–01	45	30	13	-	2	217	138	62	1st in EO St. Lawr	Lost Final
2001–02	45	19	24	-	2	194	182	43	4th in EO St. Lawr	Lost Division Semi-final
2002–03	45	21	15	-	9	210	197	51	3rd in EO St. Lawr	Lost Division Final
2003–04	45	30	13	-	0	228	137	62	3rd in EO St. Lawr	Lost Division Semi-final
2004–05	45	28	13	-	4	223	166	60	1st in EO St. Lawr	Lost Division Final
2005–06	45	31	12	-	2	293	196	64	1st in EO St. Lawr	Lost Division Final
2006–07	40	21	15	-	4	217	179	46	4th in EO St. Lawr	Lost Division Semi-final
2007–08	60	15	39	-	6	164	260	36	9th in CJHL	Did not qualify
2008–09	60	15	38	-	7	126	225	37	10th in CJHL	Did not qualify
2009–10	62	27	29	-	6	191	214	60	8th in CJHL	Lost quarterfinals
2010–11	62	22	33	-	7	157	225	51	10th in CCHL	Did not qualify
2011–12	62	13	44	-	5	164	299	31	11th in CCHL	Did not qualify
2012–13	62	15	44	-	3	152	295	33	6th of 6 in Robinson 12th of 12 in CCHL	Did not qualify
2013–14	62	26	30	-	6	210	232	58	5th of 6 in Robinson 8th of 12 in CCHL	Lost quarterfinals 4–0 to Carleton Place Canadians
2014–15	62	26	25	-	11	225	223	63	6th of 6 in Robinson 9th of 12 in CCHL	Did not qualify
2015–16	62	36	23	-	3	224	179	75	5th of 6 in Robinson 7th of 12 in CCHL	Lost quarterfinals 4–1 to Ottawa Jr. Senators
2016–17	62	33	25	-	4	216	188	70	4th of 6 in Robinson 5th of 12 in CCHL	Won quarterfinals 4–2 over Hawkesbury Hawks Lost semi-finals 4–2 to Carleton Place Canadians
2017–18	62	18	40	-	4	159	267	40	6th of 6 in Robinson 11th of 12 in CCHL	Did not qualify
2018–19	62	21	34	-	7	176	227	49	6th of 6 in Robinson 11th of 12 in CCHL	Did not qualify
2019–20	62	26	31	-	5	204	229	59	4th of 6 in Robinson 9th of 12 in CCHL	Did not qualify
2020–21	Season cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic
2021–22	55	29	18	-	8	198	171	66	3rd of 6 in Robinson 5th of 12 in CCHL	Lost quarterfinals 4–2 to Renfrew Wolves
2022–23	55	25	24	-	6	199	206	56	5th of 6 in Robinson 9th of 12 in CCHL	Did not qualify
2023–24	55	25	26	-	4	160	170	54	5th of 6 in Robinson 9th of 12 in CCHL	Did not qualify
2024–25	55	26	23	-	6	152	168	58	5th of 6 in Robinson 7th of 12 in CCHL	Lost quarterfinals 4–0 to Carleton Place Canadians
2025–26	55	36	16	-	3	208	124	75	2nd of 6 in Robinson 4th of 12 in CCHL	Won quarterfinals 4–1 over Navan Grads Lost semi-finals 4–0 to Rockland Nationals

Notable alumni

• Calvin de Haan
• Ben Hutton

External links

• 73's Webpage
• EOJHL Webpage
• CJHL Webpage