Noel Acciari has signed a two-year one-way deal with the Boston Bruins that will pay him and average of $725K each season. Acciari was coming off his entry-level deal and was a restricted free agent.
Signed out of Providence College in 2015, Acciari has 48 games for the Bruins over the past two seasons. His contributions, limited as they are have apparently earned him a two-year deal. With arbitration rights, Acciari received a qualifying offer and could have taken the team to a hearing though this is likely better than any settlement would have been. Whether he plays a bigger role with the team is still to be seen, but he’ll be in contention for a role all season.
In those 48 games, Acciari has just six points and has been given very little ice time. That changed in the playoffs this year, when he stepped into a much bigger role in four games against Ottawa and even logged 28 minutes during a double overtime game that David Krejci suffered an injury when he collided with Chris Wideman. Though the Bruins would be eliminated from the series, perhaps that showed a look into the role Acciari will see next year under Bruce Cassidy.
The Bruins still have several RFAs to sign, with David Pastrnak leading the way. With $12.7MM in cap space, it still seems likely that Ryan Spooner will be moved out instead of re-signed. If the Bruins want to be players in free agency, they’d need to move money out as Pastrnak and Spooner alone would take up the majority of the remaining cap space.
Well spooner is a likely trade candidate, and Pastrnak is looking at what, $6M annually? If they trade Spooner for picks they could be players for Justin Williams or Karl Alzner (can he play on the left?), and they would probably wouldn’t have to shave off much salary, they could just like find a taker for McQuaid and his 3 mil or so and that would give them breathing room and they could just sign a 3rd pair D for like 1 million and be fine.