Countdown to TradeCentre: Should the Wild acquire Weber's deal?

The NHL's Mar. 21 Trade Deadline is approaching and teams are making decisions on whether to buy, sell and decide which players can make the biggest difference and hold the greatest value. Check out today's trade rumours and speculation from around the NHL beat. And follow TradeCentre on TSN and TSN.ca through Deadline Day for all the updates.

With the Minnesota Wild struggling, it appears all options could be back on the table for a team that looked like certain buyers just weeks ago.

Michael Russo of The Athletic believes the Wild should consider acquiring defenceman Shea Weber's contract from the Montreal Canadiens to help relieve their looming cap crunch.

Minnesota faces buyout penalties of $12.7 million or more in each of the next three seasons after cutting ties with veterans Ryan Suter and Zach Parise last summer. Russo writes that adding Weber's $7.857 million could free up enough space for the Wild to re-sign pending restricted free agent Kevin Fiala or make a splash in free agency.

The Wild currently have four players slated for unrestricted free agency this summer - forwards Nick Bjugstad and Nico Sturm, as well as defencemen Alex Goligoski and Jordie Benn. With the team losing eight of their past 10 ten games, the future has become more uncertain for those players in Minnesota.

“Everybody in the locker room realizes what’s going on,” Sturm said after the team's latest loss on Sunday, per The Athletic. “We’re sliding. All the good things that we do doesn’t seem to work out, and the bad things just become magnified. It’s like you’re making a little mistake and it just blows up.

“It might go on another three games like this, five games, I don’t know. Maybe next game our luck turns around. But like (Matt Dumba)