The Wild has been selected as a first-time host of the USA Hockey All-American Prospects Game, USA Hockey announced Monday.
The seventh ANNUAL event, featuring the top 40 U.S.-born prospects eligible for the 2019 draft, will be Sept. 19 at Xcel Energy Center.
Final rosters for this year's game will be chosen in August.
According to USA Hockey, 127 past participants in the event have been NHL draft picks including 30 first-rounders. The state of Minnesota has produced six: Casey Mittelstadt, Kieffer Bellows, Brock Boeser, Riley Tufte, Ryan Poehling and Jake Oettinger.
U hires strength coach
The Gophers announced the hiring of Steve Felde, who replaces Shaun Brown as the men's basketball strength coach, for his third stint at Minnesota.
Felde spent the past five years at Miami (Fla.), but he headed the strength and conditioning program for Tubby Smith's NCAA tournament run and final season with the Gophers in 2012-13.
Before taking that position, the Milwaukee native was the head strength coach for 13 Division I sports at Wisconsin-Milwaukee from 2007-12. Brown initially replaced Felde with the Gophers in 2003.
Newcomer lifts Saints
The Saints totaled nine runs in the sixth and seventh innings in a 15-8 road victory over the Lincoln Saltdogs. Max Murphy and Brady Shoemaker each drove in four runs.
