UPDATE 12:05 PM EST
Tom Sestito has been claimed on waivers by the Vancouver Canucks. Michael Leighton has cleared waivers.
Excluding slide-rule contracts, the Flyers are now back down to 49 contracts on their reserve list.
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The Flyers got some good news yesterday on the injury front regarding Erik Gustafsson. The young defenseman, who has had tough luck with injuries during his pro career, does not appear likely to miss significant time after being forced to leave Wednesday's 4-1 win over Washington.
Early in the second period, Gustafsson suffered a deep bruise on his left shin after his shin guard failed to protect him when blocking a shot. He has also being dealing with a minor groin pull over the past week, but it did not keep him out of the lineup on Wednesday.
Gustafsson is listed as day-to-day and is questionable to play tomorrow against Ottawa. If he isn't ready to go, the Flyers will dress veteran defenseman Kurtis Foster, who last played Feb. 15.
Since his recall from Adirondack on Feb. 16, Gustafsson has been a help to the team in two different ways.
He has been an upgrade on the third pairing, garnering more ice time (17:17 average, which includes being knocked out of last game early) than either Foster (13:23) or Bruno Gervais (16:46). That has enabled Kimmo Timonen, who is dealing with plantar fasciitis in one of his heels, to skate a couple fewer shifts per game.
Additionally, Gustafsson's recall has enabled Peter Laviolette to go with his preferred top two defense pairings of Timonen with Luke Schenn and Braydon Coburn with Nicklas Grossmann. When both Gervais and Foster were in the lineup, Laviolette placed Coburn with Gervais and Grossmann with Foster. Apart from the fact that both Gervais and Foster are righthanded, they were kept apart because Laviolette does not have a lot of defensive trust in either player.
Unfortunately, the Coburn-Gervais pairing also really struggled. Despite mobility concerns, Grossmann-Foster duo was adequate as the third pairing in power play specialist Foster's limited five-on-five minutes. That was mostly due to Grossmann and the team's better defensive forwards being out on the ice to compensate.
When Gustafsson came up, the scuffling Coburn went back with the consistently steady Grossmann. Coburn still isn't all the way back to the outstanding form he showed in the second half and playoffs of last year, but has made some recent strides. Meanwhile, Gervais went back to playing sixth D minutes and was less frequently exposed to tough matchups.
If the Flyers can avoid more injuries on defense before Andrej Meszaros (shoulder) returns, the defense picture will start to look a little better. Meszaros will go back to anchoring the third pair with Gustafsson in the sixth-D role (but capable of playing about 15-16 minutes a game when needed or slotting up in a pinch).
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Yesterday, the Flyers placed winger Tom Sestito and goaltender Michael Leighton on waivers. The club is currently capped out and is using long-term injured reserve allowance. Sending Sestito ($605,000) and Leighton ($900,000) to Adirondack will clear $1.505 million off the team's cap figure.
There is a chance that Sestito will be claimed off waivers by another team today. Although not particularly trusted by Laviolette (who clearly prefers the smaller, speedier Zac Rinaldo), Sestito does have some assets to offer. He is not a bad skater for such a big guy, and when he plays under control, he can be effective in non-fighting situations.
Sestito, who had a two-goal game against Tampa Bay earlier this season, is not going to score many goals at the NHL level. That's just not his role. Banging bodies and fighting are what got him to the NHL in the first place. But he actually does have decent hands if he gets the puck in close.
Where Sestito still needs to improve his game in terms of his decision making and discipline. By discipline, I'm not only talking about penalties, I'm referring to his play away with and without the puck. But he cannot possibly get better if he doesn't get opportunities to play (whether that's in the NHL or even back in the AHL). If it all takes is a single bad shift or one glaring mistake in a game to earn several more weeks in the pressbox, the player is simply not trusted by the coach and probably never will be.
Perhaps getting claimed by another organization would be a good thing for Sestito. Another coach might see potential value in him as an NHL player and let him play through mistakes while figuring out what does and doesn't work for him at the top level. That's how Rinaldo has begun to thrive under Laviolette. The Flyers have lived through ups and downs in Rinaldo's still-young NHL career, and he's been rewarding the club of late. The coach clearly does not see similar potential in Sestito.
Laviolette may be proven right or may be proven wrong. For the player's sake, at least, you hope there's a coach out there who sees a role on a team for him and hands him the ball to either run with or fumble away on his own. My own feeling on Sesito is that the flaws may be correctable. His mistakes (like Rinaldo's) are often ones of over-zealousness.
However, players who play Sestito's role are often viewed as a dime a dozen, and it's tough for these players to stick for long if they don't make an immediate positive impression. The Flyers placed Sestito on waivers last year and were able to assign him to the Phantoms went he went unclaimed.
Sestito sustained a minor injury (charley horse) while on conditioning assignment with the Phantoms. He also was set back at the start of camp by a bout with mumps.
In the case of Leighton, there is virtually no chance of the veteran goaltender being claimed. It is also pretty clear that fellow veteran Brian Boucher is the better NHL backup. However, in fairness to Leighton, he has only played one pro game since last April. As bad as he looked in his early season outing in Tampa, the team in front of him was just as bad.
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Harry Zolnierczyk's game misconduct at the end of the game against Washington has been rescinded by the NHL. There will be no suspension or fine issued as a result of the kneeing penalty he was assessed.
The decision was not a surprise. Not even Capitals coach Adam Oates saw it as a dirty play, although Zolnierczyk's knee made contact with Mathieu Perreault on a late-game body check in open ice.
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