The St. Louis Blues have added a quality bottom-six forward at a reasonable cost, signing Noel Acciari to a one-year, $1.25MM contract. Acciari arrives in St. Louis having spent the last three seasons as a Florida Panther.
You can never have enough affordable bottom-six forwards, and that’s the attitude GM Doug Armstrong is taking with the signing of Acciari. At a $1.25MM price tag, Acciari is a market-price investment for Armstrong to bolster the back of his lineup. An undrafted player, Acciari has 307 NHL games on his resume.
Acciari has struggled to stay healthy as of late, but in his most recent healthy season he scored 20 goals. The five-foot-ten, 209-pound winger is a bundle of energy, physicality, and grit and will give coach Craig Berube a trustworthy bottom-six option. Given his recent inability to stay in the lineup and overall lack of scoring since his impressive 2019-20 campaign, expecting another 20-goal season from Acciari would be a mistake. But with reasonable expectations, Blues fans should be satisfied with this move as a sensible, low-risk option.
18 points in two years don’t know about quality