2023-24 Season in Review: Noel Acciari

It was a black ‘n blue year for Acciari in his first season with the black ‘n gold

Vitals

Player: Noel Acciari
Born: December 1, 1991 (32 years old)
Height: 5-foot-10
Weight: 209 pounds
Hometown: Johnston, RI, USA
Shoots: Right
Draft: undrafted
2023-24 Statistics (NHL): 55 games played, five goals, three assists, eight points
Contract Status: Completed his first season of a three-year contract with Pittsburgh that ties him to the Penguins through 2025-26. Acciari carries a $2.0 million cap hit

Monthly Splits

Story of the Season

Entering 2023-24, Kyle Dubas made no secret that he was determined to fix one of the Penguins’ biggest problems: a leaky bottom-six forward group. Dubas wanted to add a measure of physicality, PK ability and players who could defend better. Signing a relatively rich $2.0 million salary with the long-for-a-fourth-liner term of three years, Noel Acciari was the twisted-nosed face of that revamp to be the biggest addition of the depth forwards. He fit the embodiment of exactly what Dubas was seeking: a hard-working, honest player that would sacrifice for the good of the team and do some of dirty work for his star-caliber players.

In that regard, Acciari was as advertised. He led the team’s forwards by a huge distance in shots blocked per hour (85 total in 55 games). Acciari filled the role of lower line player throwing his body around with 124 hits (again ranking favorably for volume of hits in limited amount of playing time). He took defensive zone draws like it was his job, because it was his job.

Then came the injuries. Acciari missed 27 total games mostly over three different chunks of the season. First up was a seven-game absence in December (undisclosed lower body), then six more games were missed in February (concussion from a suspendable hit by Winnipeg Jets defenseman Brenden Dillon) and finally Acciari was absent for the team’s last 12 games of the year over March and April (glute).

Too absent was the offensive production, Acciari chipped in just a handful of goals and points. He was counted on for different areas than scoring, but ended chugging along to a disappointing output of goals and assists.

Those struggles aside, he won over his coach. You can hear the admiration from Mike Sullivan dripping with every word when speaking of Acciari back in February as the player was on the mend from injury:

“He’ll bring what he always brings. He’s a warrior,” Sullivan said. “He’s just an ultimate competitor. He blocks shots, he helps us on the penalty kill, he’s good in the faceoff circle. I think he brings a gritty element to our lineup that can be contagious with our group. I think he’s been a big part of us being more difficult to play against.

“He’s been a huge part of the penalty kill success that we’ve had this year. We use him in so many important situations, and just his sheer competitiveness and grit that he brings to our lineup every night is something that I think makes us a much better team.”

Regular season 5v5 advanced stats

Data via Natural Stat Trick. The ranking is out of 17 forwards on the team who qualified by playing a minimum of 150 minutes.

Corsi For%: 40.7 (17th)
Goals For%: 40.9 (15th)
xGF%: 39.7 (17th)
Scoring Chance %: 39.6 (17th)
High Danger Scoring Chance%: 41.7 (17th)
5v5 on-ice shooting%: 7.4 (13th)
On-ice save%: .917 (10th)
Goals/60: 0.42 (15th)
Assist/60: 0.32 (14th)
Points/60: 0.74 (15th)

—Well, someone has to finish last on the team and in most advanced categories Acciari is either at the very bottom or close to it. To add context, there’s no doubt role offers obvious reasons why. Acciari led the Pens with a 31.1% shift starts in the defensive zone (compared to only 3.3% in the offensive zone, 11.9% in the neutral zone and 53.7% of the time starting on the fly). Acciari wasn’t set to excel, but rather hold down the fort and absorb the punishment of shots against, get clears and weather the storm until his more skilled teammates could catch their breath and get back on the ice.

—The only statistic that might matter for Acciari is 25 and 2.64. That’s the number and rate of goals against for him this season. Last season for regular bottom-sixers all of Danton Heinen, Jeff Carter and Kasperi Kapanen had a higher GA/60.

Charts n’at - Via HockeyViz and JFresh Hockey

Acciari played mostly with Jeff Carter and Matt Nieto early in the year, and when Nieto was knocked out for the season with knee injuries it was Jansen Harkins who de facto took over that role, with Emil Bemstrom occasionally working in as a fourth line wing. Not much to say besides defensive starts are literally off the chart in the fourth visual.

A spray and pray shooting chart if there ever was one. Acciari will get in tight when he can but also put pucks on net when the opportunity presents.

While the 20 goals Acciari scored in the 2019-20 season looks like the fluke outlier, he has scored double-digit goals three times his career (including 14 as recently as 2022-23). However, the bank dried up this year with only five total goals and just four at 5v5. That could be bad luck at failing to convert and goal scoring could be an area that bounce-backs next season for Acciari to a moderate degree.

Thought this was interesting, in the three years of NHL Edge tracking Acciari has some of the worst top speed and fewest 18+ mph bursts of any forward in the league. The Pens have him signed through age-34 and he wasn’t a quick skater in his early 30’s.

The flip-side is Acciari has found a way to make an NHL career while never being one of the better skaters around and could continue to use his hockey IQ and veteran tricks to get around effectively. But if he’s looking old/slow/injured in 2024-25, that could open the door up as a problem in the final season of his contract.

WAR isn’t a huge fan of Acciari, but his limited value is on display. He can positively impact defense, kill some penalties and will draw a few for his team (14 minors drawn this year, compared to 10 taken). Not gonna pass well and hopefully can get the finishing up for a strong year.

The micro stats reinforce what we see on the WAR chart. Acciari is a very limited player, a classic fourth line banger. He’ll use his body to hit others and absorb pucks, but isn’t much of a threat with the puck on his stick to create offense. Not that kind of player, and that’s OK too because he’ll help on the penalty kill and add to the team’s compete level.

Highlights

Here’s a nice snapshot of Acciari at his most effective buzzing around the offensive zone, throwing the body around and picking up an assist against Calgary.

Nice work by Acciari to pin the puck and others to the wall, get in position in case the puck popped to him and then score when it happened to do so.

And here’s another reminder that even players in the NHL who “don’t have hands” compared to other NHL players are still really, really good and can instantly pounce on a broken play and put the puck in the net with authority when they get some time and space to pick a spot. Not sure how Joseph Woll was trying to play this and some traffic didn’t help but Acciari takes advantage of the goalie being just a little off his angle and makes him pay with a snipe to the top of the net that would make any skilled player smile.

Saving the best for last, how about a little between-the-leg deflection action for a slick goal? Someone’s been watching Sid at practice..

Questions to ponder

While 32-years old isn’t old in many respects, it’s fairly ancient for the NHL when it comes to the type of fourth line energy role that he’s cast in. Will Acciari have a strong second season in Pittsburgh and even become as much as a cult hero for a player willing and able to perform a difficult job? Will he move into a contractual problem if injuries continue and production remains low? Is there a middle ground to be tread? Is there any meaning to the fact that that for much of the team’s best stretch at the very end of the season, Acciari was not playing in the last 12 games of the year?

Ideal 2024-25

Stay healthy, score about 10 goals in some situationally key moments, try to handle as much of the defensive role as possible while keeping the goals against figures in decent shape. All while playing a big role on the PK, winning a lot of faceoffs, blocking shots, dishing out hits, taking them when necessary. Whew. It’s not a pretty job but at this point Acciari knows without needing to be told what an ideal season looks like for a fourth line role player.

Bottom line

Acciari paid a physical price to do his part to help shore up the Penguins this year. He didn’t shine, but he didn’t sink either. He’s not a young player and in a tough job it’s worth hoping he can perform a little better (and stay in the lineup mlre) in order to keep feeling good about the three-year commitment Pittsburgh made to him. They’ll gladly take him back for a second year in 2024-25, but players on the fringe of the roster always have much to continuously prove.