On Friday, the Pittsburgh Penguins made a number of roster announcements. Noel Acciari, the forward, was first put on the injured reserve.
After sustaining a lower-body injury earlier this week, head coach Mike Sullivan mentioned that Acciari was still not skating.
The 32-year-old, who signed a three-year, $6,000,000 contract with the Penguins during free agency, has three points in 21 games this season. The average annual value (AAV) of the contract is $2,000,000.
Acciari played with both the Toronto Maple Leafs and the St. Louis Blues the previous season, logging 23 points in 77 contests. At the trade deadline, he was sent by the Blues to Toronto, where he played in 11 Stanley Cup playoff games and scored two goals. Kyle Dubas, the general manager and president of hockey operations for the Penguins, was in charge in Toronto when he acquired Acciari.
The product of Johnston, Rhode Island, has played 406 games over a nine-year career with the Boston Bruins, Florida Panthers, and other teams, tallying 61 goals and 42 assists for 103 points.
Forwards Marc Johnstone, Jonathan Gruden, and Valtteri Puustinen have been called up by the Penguins from their American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. While Gruden skated in three games with the Penguins during the previous season and Puustinen played in one game during the 2021–22 campaign, Johnston is expected to make his NHL debut.
The forwards Joona Koppanen and Alex Nylander have been assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in a comparable move. The 25-year-old Koppanen has six points in 18 AHL games and appeared in three games with the Penguins. This season, Nylander has played in five NHL games; in 14 AHL games, the former first-round pick has scored 10 points.
