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2016 Times Leader Girls Track All-Stars

Wilkes-Barre Area posts new position, grants sabbaticals amid furloughs

<p>Tom Sestito finished the playoffs with a goal, an assist and 52 penalty minutes in the last four games.</p><p>That&#8217;s how Sestito wants to begin the 2016-17 season, and he&#8217;ll get a chance to do it with the Pittsburgh organization.</p><p>In the organization&#8217;s first deal after the free agency period began on Friday, Sestito inked a one-year, two-way contract to return for a second season. The veteran forward said a few other teams called to express interest, but returning to the Pittsburgh organization was an easy decision.</p><p>&#8220;I didn&#8217;t want to start all over again. Pittsburgh and Wilkes-Barre were great to me and I wanted to come back,&#8221; Sestito said.</p><p>Sestito spent most of last season with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, missing time in the first half due to injury. He finished the year with five goals and 14 points in 41 games and he finished second on the team with 104 penalty minutes.</p><p>While toughness is Sestito&#8217;s trademark, he also added another element to his game - leadership. The 28-year-old has 141 NHL games under his belt and has played nine pro seasons.</p><p>&#8220;Last year I made a big step with being a veteran leader,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Over my career I&#8217;ve handled some things wrong and I realize that. Maybe it&#8217;s something I can teach younger guys not to make the same mistakes.&#8221;</p><p>Sestito won&#8217;t be the only veteran leader on Wilkes-Barre/Scranton as captain Tom Kostopoulos will return for another season. Sestito said he was bugging Kostopoulos to come back at the end of last season and called him the best captain he&#8217;s ever had on a team.</p><p>&#8220;He still has it,&#8221; Sestito said. &#8220;He&#8217;s a great person and a great player who makes everyone around him better.&#8221;</p><p>Sestito said he was disappointed with his play in the regular season last year and dealing with two injuries didn&#8217;t help. Once he did get healthy, Sestito posted six points in the last 10 games, along with 49 penalty minutes before elevating his game even more in the postseason.</p><p>&#8220;They way I finished in the playoffs is how I wanted to start the season,&#8221; Sestito said.</p><p>Last summer was a stressful experience, Sestito said, because he didn&#8217;t have a contract and he came to Pittsburgh&#8217;s training camp as a tryout.</p><p>Now, with a deal in place providing some security for his family in the upcoming season, Sestito is focused on getting in shape and being ready when camp opens.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s easy to focus on training when everything is done early,&#8221; he said. &#8220;With having a family now, it&#8217;s nice that I&#8217;ll be playing pretty close to home (Rome, New York) and somewhere that we&#8217;re familiar with.&#8221;</p><p>And if that familiar place is Pittsburgh or Wilkes-Barre, Sestito said he doesn&#8217;t mind if he spends the year bouncing between the two. In fact, he said the postseason run with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton was the most fun he&#8217;s had playing hockey in quite some time.</p><p>That includes Game 5 of the series against Hershey when Sestito got in a fight, scored a breakaway goal, received two game misconducts and racked up 37 penalty minutes.</p><p>&#8220;Just to do that in a game of that magnitude and in their barn is something special,&#8221; Sestito said. &#8220;I won&#8217;t forget that game.&#8221;</p><p><strong>Free agent roundup</strong></p><p>Pittsburgh signed the following players to one-year, two-way contracts on Friday:</p><p><strong>Steve Oleksy:</strong> signed a one-year, two-way deal on Friday. Oleksy, 30, spent most of last season with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton where he served as assistant captain.</p><p><strong>D David Warsofsky:</strong> Spent a brief time with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton at the start of last season before being called up to Pittsburgh. Claimed off waivers by New Jersey on Feb. 29. Recorded six points in 17 games with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.</p><p><strong>D Stuart Percy:</strong> A former first-round pick by the Toronto Maple Leafs. Percy, 23, tallied 24 points (4G-20A) and was plus-3 in 58 AHL regular-season games for the Marlies. He tacked on four assists and a plus-3 in 14 playoff contests. During the regular season he also made three NHL appearances with the Maple Leafs.</p><p><strong>D Cameron Guance:</strong> Gaunce, 26, is coming off of a career year with the Portland Pirates, where his 35 assists and 37 points in 75 games both represented the highest totals of his pro career, and ranked him 17th (tied) among all AHL D-men in scoring. The 2016 AHL All-Star was also an alternate captain for the Pirates. He has played in 20 career NHL games with the Colorado Avalanche and Dallas Stars.</p><p><strong>D Chad Ruhwedel:</strong> Ruhwedel, 26, played the past four seasons in the Buffalo Sabres organization, appearing in a total of 33 NHL games with the Sabres, registering two assists. The 5-foot-11, 191-pound right-handed shooting defender posted 26 points (10G-16A) in 59 games with the Rochester Americans in 2015-16, the second-straight year he reached double digits in goals.</p><p><strong>Among former Wilkes-Barre/Scranton players signing elsewhere:</strong> D Will O&#8217;Neill signed with a two-way deal with Philadelphia; LW Matthis Plachta signed with his former team in Germany.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Tom Sestito will return to the Penguins next season after signed a one-year, two-way contract with the Pittsburgh organization on Friday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/web1_pens_her3_faa-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Tom Sestito will return to the Penguins next season after signed a one-year, two-way contract with the Pittsburgh organization on Friday. </caption0><photoCredit0>Fred Adams file photo | For Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/web1_TomSestitoMUG.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Sestito </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/web1_TomSestitoMUG.jpg</photo1><caption1>Sestito </caption1><photoCredit1>Fred Adams file photo | For Times Leader </photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Tom Venesky</p><p>tvenesky@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Tom Venesky at 570-991-6395 or on Twitter @TLTomVenesky</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Tom Sestito sticking with the Penguins