The Flyers got their guy.
Long rumored to be the center they were targeting for the fourth line, Noel Acciari is heading to Philly after signing a two-year deal that carries a $2.8 million average annual value. His arrival comes less than a week after the Flyers traded fourth-line winger and fellow agitator Garnet Hathaway to Florida.
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Acciari, 34, had 13 goals, 25 points, and an impressive plus-14 rating in 67 games last season for the Pittsburgh Penguins. He had one assist in six playoff games against the Flyers, winning 61% of his faceoffs in the series. A natural center, he has also played a lot of wing, including in Pittsburgh, where he combined with Connor Dewar and Blake Lizotte to make up one of the league’s top fourth lines.
Known primarily for his faceoff prowess, agitation abilities, and penalty killing, Acciari has also quietly registered four double-digit goal seasons with bottom-of-the-lineup deployment, including a 20-goal campaign in 2019-20 with Florida. Last season, Acciari won 52% of his faceoffs (53.5% since 2022-23) and ranked 11th among all NHL forwards in average shorthanded time ice per game at 2 minutes, 35 seconds.
In 585 career games with the Boston Bruins, Florida Panthers, St. Louis Blues, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Penguins, Acciari has amassed 81 goals and 144 points. He was a teammate of Owen Tippett’s in Florida and worked with Todd Reirden in Pittsburgh for one season. In 2019, he was a valuable contributor for a Boston team that came up one game short of winning the Stanley Cup.
Flyers add organizational depth
The Flyers also added depth to Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League, signing forwards Zach Aston-Reese and Danila Klimovich. Aston-Reese’s deal is a two-year one-way/two-way deal, which will see the NHL vet make $850,000 this season. According to a league source, Klimovich’s contract is a two-way deal with a cap hit of $850,000 in the NHL.
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Aston-Reese, who is best known for his time with the Penguins and can play center or wing, has compiled 49 goals and 102 points in 416 career NHL games. The 31-year-old split last season between the Columbus Blue Jackets and their AHL team in Cleveland, tallying five points in 27 NHL games and another 16 points in 27 AHL contests. He will be expected to compete for an NHL spot in training camp, but seems more likely to be ticketed for the AHL.
Drafted in the second round by the Vancouver Canucks in 2021, Klimovich has spent the past five seasons playing for Abbotsford of the American Hockey League. Last year, the 6-foot-2, 202-pound right winger had 34 points (18 goals, 16 assists) in 63 regular-season games and was a member of the 2025 Calder Cup championship team, scoring four goals in 16 playoff games.
Klimovich, 23, was a teammate of goalie Aleksei Kolosov with Belarus at the 2021 IIHF men’s World Championships and overlapped with Rick Tocchet and Yopgi Svejkovský’s time in the Canucks organization.
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