Penguins’ Noel Acciari leaves game vs. Maple Leafs with upper-body injury

The Pittsburgh Penguins have announced that forward Noel Acciari will not be returning to Monday’s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs due to an upper-body injury.

Forward Noel Acciari (upper body) will not return to tonight's game.

— Penguins PR (@PenguinsPR) November 4, 2025

Acciari left the game early in the first period of the game and did not return. The cause of his injury is not known at this point in time, as he only played two shifts before his injury and nothing stood out as causing it. According to Natural Stat Trick, he had taken a hit while in the game, so it is possible that that caused the injury. The Penguins confirmed his absence before the start of the second period of the game.

The severity of the injury and how long Acciari is expected to be out is also not known. Penguins head coach Dan Muse will likely provide an update after the conclusion of Monday’s game or after the team returns to Pittsburgh ahead of their next game on Thursday against the Washington Capitals.

Acciari left the game with just the one hit taken on his stat sheet in 1:10 of ice time in the game, with the game still scoreless at the time of his departure.

With Acciari out of the lineup, the Penguins have gone with a surprising move to replace him in the game. Instead of dissolving the fourth line that he was on with Blake Lizotte and Connor Dewar and inserting those two in other places in the lineup, Filip Hallander has replaced Acciari on the fourth line, while the rest of the lineup has juggled linemates, like Evgeni Malkin replacing Filip Hallander on the top line with Sidney Crosby and Bryan Rust.

Should Acciari miss a significant amount of time, the Penguins will either need Justin Brazeau to be healthy and available for Thursday’s game, or opt for 11 forwards and seven defensemen in their lineup, as their only healthy scratches are Connor Clifton and Mathew Dumba. If they want to replace Acciari with a forward, one of Brazeau or Acciari will need to be placed on injured reserve, or one of Clifton and Dumba will need to be waived in order to make room on their roster.

Acciari has been off to a solid start to the season by his standards with three assists in 13 games.