The Boston Bruins would no doubt like to retain their whole roster from their Stanley Cup Playoffs run, including Noel Acciari. However, whether they can or not will depend completely on other roster moves.
Straight up, if the Boston Bruins somehow managed to secure the signing of Marcus Johansson, it’s a safe bet that Noel Acciari is one of a couple of players that are the sacrificial lamb.
If the Charlie McAvoy deal ends up exceeding the comparable of the Florida Panthers’ Aaron Ekblad, who signed for $7.5 million, again Noel Acciari likely becomes the sacrifice on the Boston Bruins roster.
Essentially, he’s done nothing but prove himself since his days captaining Providence College. He now has 180 NHL appearances to his name, with an additional 35 in the play-offs. Not half bad for a player that wasn’t drafted.
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Right now though, Noel Acciari finds himself as a free agent at a time where teams across the league are struggling to fit restricted free agents into their salary cap plans. Whether we’re talking Brayden Point and the Tampa Bay Lighting, Mitch Marner and the Toronto Maple Leafs, Sebastian Aho of the Carolina Hurricanes or Patrick Laine and the Winnipeg Jets; everyone is struggling to determine what their future looks like without contracts inked.
The Boston Bruins are no different, with Brandon Carlo, Danton Heinen and Charlie McAvoy all expecting new deals and using the new status of restricted free agents threatening offer sheets and generally not being as easy to deal with as in the past, to push for potentially more money than would allow the Boston Bruins to retain a guy like Acciari’s services.
Noel Acciari is probably deserving of at least a $1 million contract, if not a $1.5 million one – even that seemingly small amount against an $81.5 million cap hit could prove too much. Don’t forget that the Boston Bruins are also heavily limited from offering any sort of term if they want to secure a new contract for Torey Krug next summer.
This is one of those tough scenarios where the player matches the Boston Bruins ethos perfectly; Noel Acciari works hard, offers versatility, doesn’t back down and just seems to be the sort of guy you want on your fourth line – however, he’s also the sort of guy that is unfortunately replaceable with an entry-level contract.
Letting Noel Acciari leave won’t be an easy decision, heck, it may not even be a decision. But should he go, it’s going to be a decision made of common sense, completely.
You’d have to imagine the Boston Bruins want all of the other moving parts tied up very soon, because Acciari could garner some interest elsewhere and he’d be well within his rights to listen – a player’s got to earn after all!