Vitals
Player: Noel Acciari
Born: Dec. 1, 1991 (34 years old)
Height: 5-foot-11
Weight: 209 pounds
Hometown: Johnston, Rhode Island, U.S.
Shoots: Right
Draft: Undrafted
2024-25 Statistics: 67 games played; 13 goals; 12 assists; 25 points; one assist in six playoff games
Contract Status: Impending free agent on July 1, completed a three-year, $6 million contract ($2.0m cap hit)
History: 2023-24 (50% C, 27% D), 2024-25
Story of the Season
A popular compliment that you’ll hear pop up in the NHL lexicon these days is for a player
to describe another as an “honest player”. It’s high praise that anyone would be proud to have attached to them.
The term doesn’t exactly mean the same as it does in the outside world that one is being truthful or candid, a google search summarizes an honest hockey player as “a hardworking, reliable, and fundamentally sound athlete who plays with integrity, maximizes their effort every shift, and plays a disciplined, low-mistake game”. The term applies more to actions than words.
It’s safe to say there might not be a more honest player in the NHL today than Noel Acciari.
The Rhode Island native added ruggedness (65 hits in 67 games) and was a willing shot blocker (62). His rate of giveaways (1.34 per 60 minutes played) was the lowest on the team. While officially listed as a right winger in all but one game, Acciari lent versatility to function as a center at the start of play with 594 faceoffs, the third highest total on the team. 205 of those faceoffs were while shorthanded to lead the Penguins in that department. Acciari’s 52.0% overall winning percentage in the circle came up huge, especially considering the importance of all those shorthanded draws that largely take place in the defensive zone. His 2:35 average ice time per game shorthanded was second on the team, barely trailing frequent running mate Connor Dewar’s 2:41.
Acciari also stepped up offensively, despite being utilized in a lopsidedly defensive role in terms of zone starts. Acciari’s 13 goals were the fourth time in his career that he’s cracked double-digits and his highest season total since scoring 14 in 2022-23. Those 13 goals outpaced the nine combined goals scored during his first two seasons with the Pens from 2023-25. Likewise, Acciari’s 25 points was the second highest total of his career and outproduced his combined point total (19) from his first two seasons as Penguin.
“I’m going to do everything for the guy next to me out on the ice, whether it’s blocking a shot, making a hit, trying to make a play, score a goal,” Acciari said in October. “Leave it all out there every night. If I can do that every night, then I’m happy with that.”
No lies detected from an honest player.
Monthly Splits
via Yahoo
Acciari finished the second half of the season so strongly and deeply embedded on arguably the Penguins’ best and most consistent all-around line that it can take an effort to go back and remember just how rocky the beginning of the season was for him.
Acciari was dealing with a core/hip flexor injury at the end of 2024-25 that didn’t heal in time for training camp, where he missed the first two weeks of practice on the ice. Once he got going, he didn’t go far – he was made a healthy scratch for one game in October for the first and only time as a Penguin. In a season where plenty of veterans like Kevin Hayes, Danton Heinen, Philip Tomasino, Matt Dumba and Ryan Graves had their position in the lineup marginalized in the beginning of the year — if not outright waived and sent to the AHL to lose their spot altogether — there was no sure sign Acciari wouldn’t be joining that group based on how the first few weeks of the season were unfolding.
Right when his season was starting to get on track with improved play as October rolled along, Acciari suffered an undisclosed upper body injury in an early November game against Toronto and would miss a month from the lineup dealing with that issue in another setback to his campaign.
After getting back in early December, it was go time. Acciari returned to the lineup and scored three points in four games, establishing the spot as a regular that he wouldn’t give up again. He’d go onto play 54 of the final 55 games of the season (not counting getting sat for a rest for the playoffs at the end of the year) while seeing his average ice-time increase each month over the course of December to April all the way to almost 15 minutes per night by the end of the year. He got more time because he was doing his part with Blake Lizotte and Connor Dewar to give a huge competitive advantage to the Penguins as a “fourth” line that could take on tough matchups, tilt the ice and more than hold their own going up against other team’s scoring lines.
Regular season 5v5 advanced stats
Data via Natural Stat Trick. Ranking is out of 18 forwards on the team who qualified by playing a minimum of 150 minutes.
Corsi For%: 48.5 (13th)
Goals For%: 57.6 (4th)
xGF%: 51.6 (9th)
Scoring Chance%: 52.1 (6th)
High Danger Scoring Chance%: 51.6 (11th)
5v5 on-ice shooting%: 11.8 (9th)
On-ice save%: 91.83 (2nd)
Goals/60: 1.00
Assists/60: 0.92
Points/60: 1.91 (9th)
After ranking 17th out of 17 forwards in Corsi For% in 2024-25 and 15th in xGF%, Acciari turned the tables in a major way in 2025-26. The goalies did their part while he was on the ice and he had to come by these numbers despite enduring 32.3 defensive zone faceoffs per 60, the highest on the team. Acciari and his fourth line mates did wonderfully to stay well above water in terms of scoring chances and expected goals. Coming in at nearly two points per 60 turns a nice job into a superb season once the offensive production and finishing added onto a solid foundation.
Charts n’at
Via Advanced Hockey Stats and NHL Edge
What a difference a year makes. Acciari’s 2024-25 was dreadful and by WAR metrics he was one of the worst players in the entire league. That turned around in a major way in 2025-26, seemingly by the force of sheer will (and better finishing).
Acciari isn’t going to do anything fancy or skilled like enter the zone with possession or create chance assists for others very often. That’s just not his game, as is well understood. He’s also not going to do anything in a fast way at this point of his career, playing on the rush for quick counter-attacks isn’t in his wheelhouse. But he is going to get on the forecheck and found some success popping goals home. It’s not a very complicated formula for him to work hard around the walls, do whatever is needed to bog up shooting/passing lanes and simply get down to business.
The NHL doesn’t dogpile players to show just how low-end their traits are (calling it below 50th percentile, when Acciari isn’t an area code within the 50% percentile of skating speed) so this chart isn’t too useful. Acciari spent a lot of time in the defensive zone, because that was his role to take a ton of faceoffs and try to fight from underneath. That he actually managed to be 6th among Penguin forwards in scoring chance% is a huge testament to the work he and his fellow fourth liners did. The goalies posting a .918% 5v5 save percentage is undoubtedly a boost, but the goalies also benefited just as much from the fourth liners minimizing scoring chances while carrying a heavy burden.
This chart, unfortunately, has got to be Exhibit A in the case of “Why Acciari wouldn’t be re-signed by the Pens”. The average NHL forward had 71 speed bursts above 20 mph, Acciari could only manage 22. Similarly, he didn’t get up to even 18 mph with frequency. Making it to a top speed of 22+? Forget about it. When a team gets younger, they usually get faster and Acciari was certainly the forward on the team to play a regular role with the least amount of juice to get around the ice. In a way, that’s a testament to him to still be effective and have a very good season without having the benefit of skating – but it’s also an area the team needs to address in general to get quicker players out there and pick up the pace.
Both Dewar and Blake Lizotte are younger than Acciari and can bring those elements of plus speed, and they’ve been re-signed for next year. Acciari was no less important a piece of the line this season, but he has not signed as of yet for the future. That’s likely not a coincidence. If Acciari was 26-28 years old like the other members of that line, the Pens probably would have tightened him up for next season. Going on age-35 next year, it’s a different ballgame.
Highlights
Questions to ponder
What’s the cost of chasing youth at the expense of losing capable option already on hand? That’s the big query for the Pens to ponder when it comes to Acciari’s status moving forward. They want to get younger but other options like Rutger McGroarty and Avery Hayes don’t have the experience, ability to win faceoffs or proven performance as top penalty killers that Acciari can bring to the table, even though they’re both over a decade younger. Whether that’s enough to earn Acciari another contract in Pittsburgh, however, remains to be seen.
Ideal 2026-27
Acciari played well enough to merit a job in the NHL somewhere in 2026-27. His honest play and strong results were a contributing factor for the magic of 2025-26 where the Pens outperformed expectations. Despite that, moving along seems like it will be the outcome for player and team in this case. Ideally he latches on with a top club that needs a little edge on their fourth line and can make a run for a Stanley Cup to cap off a very successful career, but he is the type of heart and soul player that could make any club better off by having him around as a background player with plus, plus intangibles and effort. He wasn’t given the team’s 2025-26 Unsung Hero award for the second season in a row by accident. That’s the type of guy that teammates, coaches and managers all greatly value and respect.
Bottom line
In the summer of 2023, Kyle Dubas made a bevy of free agent adds of Tristan Jarry, Ryan Graves, Lars Eller, Matt Nieto, Alex Nedeljkovic and Acciari. Three years later Acciari’s play plus the future second and third round picks brought in via the trades of Jarry, Nedeljkovic and Eller (some of which aren’t until 2028 or 2029) were the only bright spots to be found from that major, messy foray into free agency. That’s not saying a whole lot, but Acciari ended his contract on a very high note, admirably filling a tough role to handle and performing it in an impressive manner.
Pensburgh Grade: B+ A stronger start for a better October/November would have been necessary for an A, but you can’t ask for much more out of a veteran fourth liner than what Acciari provided this year. He did a lot of the dirty work and was a big part of a tremendous fourth line.
