Question about dust elemental and counterspell'ing him

[Levac8741]

Hi, Im new to to the forum so first off hello to all, me and my friends play alot of mtg both online and in real life, so I might be posting alot.

Recently, I have ran into the problem of counter spelling a dust elemental ( when dust elemental enters the battlefield, return 3 creatures you control to their owners hand) and then getting in a debate weather or not the 3 creatures he is supose to return to his hand stay on the battlefield, of are returned to his hand. Answers would be great! Thanks!

[torpedo]

if the dust elemental is countered, it never enters the battlefield

so you dont have to return the creatures

[Jules Clairt]

When a spell is countered, it is removed from the stack, and sent to the caster's graveyard [CR 701.5a]. Thus, since it was put out from the stack, it doesn't resolve, hence it never enters the battlefield and no creatures are sent back to owner'shands (the Elemental doesn't get a chance to activate its ability)