After playing in 180 regular season games with the Bruins over the past four seasons, Noel Acciari will be back at TD Garden on Tuesday as an opponent with the Florida Panthers.
It'll be a chance for the forward to reconnect with some old friends and teammates, and to possibly go head-to-head with his former South Shore Kings and Bruins teammate Chris Wagner.
But Acciari returns to Boston not just as a pal and former linemate of Wagner, he also represents a version of Wagner's future that may come true after this season. Like Acciari, a Rhode Island native, and New Hampshire native Tim Schaller before him, Wagner is a locally-bred fourth-line Bruins forward heading back to unrestricted free agency in the summer if he doesn't sign an extension before July 1.
Schaller left in the summer of 2018 for Vancouver and a two-year contract worth $1.9 million per season. Acciari got three years at an average annual value of $1.67 million last summer from the Panthers. These contracts were the product of both players proving their versatility within the lineup and their ability to contribute offensively while doing the dirty work. Plus the Bruins' budgeting plan doesn't seem to include paying players in the bottom of their lineup more than $1.5 million, local ties and sentimentality be damned.
Wagner, a Walpole native who came home in the summer of 2018 for a two-year deal with an AAV of $1.25 million. Despite what's happened to Schaller and Acciari since, he isn't sweating what might happen after this season.
"I mean I've always appreciated being here," Wagner told WEEI.com after the morning skate Tuesday. "Yeah, you're just happy for the guy and you wish him nothing but the best. I don't really look too much about myself because if you start doing that, then your head gets scrambled and stuff. So you just kind of focus on the day to day and see what happens."
Asked about in the big picture about how the NHL's salary structure is leaning toward paying the superstars more and more every year, while the bottom-six-forward types are seeing a smaller increase in their wages, Wagner was nonchalant.
"Well that's kind of life, though," he said.
Appreciating vets
Wagner was one of 11 Bruins to donate $2,500 in tickets to Tuesday night's game to local military members and their families as part of Military Appreciation Night at the Garden.
While everyone is looking up to hockey players, hockey players tend to look toward members of the armed services for inspiration and perspective.
"It's more than you just admire their mental toughness, because going back and forth can't be easy, and I think we all acknowledge that," Wagner said. "There's the ups and downs of our career, but they're [dealing with> life-and-death things, so I'm proud to say I'm an American."
Urho's in
Urho Vaakanainen, who was called up from Providence of the AHL on Monday, will take injured Torey Krug's spot in the lineup but skate with Connor Clifton at the start. That bumps Matt Grzelcyk up the second pair with Brandon Carlo. …
Krug (upper body) and Jake DeBrusk (lower body) remain day-to-day.
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