Tom Sestito

Playing career

Sestito was drafted 85th overall in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft by the Columbus Blue Jackets from the Plymouth Whalers of the Ontario Hockey League, where he had shown his potential by scoring 42 goals in the 2006–07 season with the Whalers.

Sestito signed a three-year, entry-level contract with the Blue Jackets on March 29, 2007. After playing with the Blue Jackets AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch, Sestito made his NHL debut with Columbus in the last game of the 2007–08 season against the St. Louis Blues on April 6, 2008.

He scored his first NHL goal on December 15, 2010, against Roberto Luongo of the Vancouver Canucks in a 3–2 overtime loss. He scored his second NHL goal on December 23, 2010, against Cory Schneider, also of the Vancouver Canucks in a 7–3 losing effort. On February 28, 2011, the Blue Jackets traded Sestito to the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for forwards Greg Moore and Michael Chaput.

On September 27, 2011, the Flyers placed him on waivers with the intention of having him play for their AHL affiliate, the Adirondack Phantoms.

On October 8, 2012, he signed for EIHL team Sheffield Steelers on a temporary contract during the 2012–13 NHL lockout, joining fellow NHL players Anthony Stewart and Drew Miller who were playing for Nottingham Panthers and Braehead Clan respectively.

On March 1, 2013, Sestito was claimed off waivers by the Vancouver Canucks and on May 29, 2013, he signed a two-year, one-way contract worth US$ 1.5 million.

In his first full NHL season (2013–14), Sestito led the league in penalty minutes with 213, edging out Chris Neil by 2. In the 2014–15 season, with the role of enforcer declining in importance in the NHL, Sestito appeared sparingly in only 3 games with the Canucks before he was re-assigned to their AHL affiliate, the Utica Comets. On February 23, 2015, the Vancouver Canucks cut Sestito after 10 games with the Comets.

After sitting out the remainder of the season, Sestito accepted an invitation to attend the Pittsburgh Penguins's training camp on August 26, 2015. Pittsburgh did not offer Sestito a contract at the conclusion of camp, but was offered a try-out with AHL affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins to begin the 2015–16 season on October 2, 2015. At the mid-point of the season, Sestito was signed by Pittsburgh to a one-year, two-way contract for the remainder of the year on February 1, 2016. He was immediately placed on waivers in order to continue to play in Wilkes-Barre.

Sestito's older brother Tim is a member of Dinamo Riga of the Kontinental Hockey League.

Criticism

Sestito has been referred to as a "talentless thug" and infamously as a "boxing hobo on skates" by ESPN commentator Keith Olbermann. Sestito made headlines after receiving twenty-seven combined penalty minutes for just one second of on-ice time against the Los Angeles Kings on January 13, 2014. Afterwards, ESPN's Olbermann named Sestito "The Worst Person in the Sports World" on his show while stating that Sestito is "not a hockey player". Sestito's teenage sister subsequently attacked Olberman via Twitter.

Sestito's penchant for taking ill-advised penalties resulted in a somewhat messy departure from the Canucks organization. The Canucks ultimately announced that Sestito would receive his full pay but would no longer play for the Vancouver Canucks or Utica Comets. Canucks' General Manager Jim Benning stressed that his club needed players who could play in the opposition's end and contribute with more than an occasional fight. Sestito subsequently found work painting a friend's restaurant in Rome, NY.

In late 2014, Sestito received criticism for tweeting that police were justified in the shooting death of an 18-year-old unarmed African American man named Michael Brown. The shooting incident sparked mass riots in Ferguson, MO, and received international media attention. Sestito later deleted the tweets.