Canucks Re-Sign Tom Sestito for Two Years

Realistically this was Sestito’s most memorable moment as a Canucks skater last season.

Tom Sestito is an okay fourth-line pugilist type. He announced today on Twitter that he’s been re-signed by the Canucks for two seasons:

The Canucks have confirmed the signing, and here’s a link to the Canucks.com press release.

Read past the jump for a bit more analysis.

There isn’t all that much to say about Tom Sestito’s Canucks tenure so far. He didn’t play that often, and got buried pretty handily when he did by the underlying data (though at least some of that is the result of his starting constantly in the defensive zone). Sestito fought five times with the Canucks last season, amassing a 1-3-1 record in the face punching competition (according to hockeyfights.com). On the positive side of the ledger at least Sestito did well to limit the minor penalties he took, and wasn’t a complete liability at five-on-five.

Tom Sestito doesn’t really have the hands to play up the lineup, and he doesn’t really have the speed to contribute on the penalty-kill (or to get to those big hits). Still if Sestito is Vancouver’s fourteenth forward next season, no one should be too upset about it. By the same token, no one is confusing Tom Sestito with a Daniel Paille or a Shawn Thornton any time soon…

Jason Botchford has the terms of the deal:

That’s a bit of a rich contract for Sestito, and a one-way deal to boot. Aaron Volpatti got a similar type of deal from the Washington Capitals in the late Spring, but his cap-hit is 175k cheaper annually than Sestito’s. Ouch.

Perhaps there’s an ulterior motive to inflating Sestito’s cap-hit, however. After all a 750k hit could prove easier to sneak through waivers if that’s something the Canucks need to do at some point over the next couple of seasons…