YES please take our terrible contract

Am I blind or did kesler somehow not make this roster?

He was placed on LTIR. Reports are saying he will probably miss the entire 18-19 season due to complications of his previous hip injury.

I know you read my comment on your last post, as I see you've moved ROR for a good return, however you haven't quite taken my advice on Kesler/Silfverberg. Gauthier is close to NHL ready, and you're making the team significantly older in that deal. Don't turn a young, rebuilding team into an old, rebuilding team. Keep the young pieces and let them grow. Who are you going to slot in Pominville's and Hagelin's spot when they walk? Baptiste is a good agitator that can be effective in that spot, especially when this team becomes more rounded.

Canucks will happily decline

Most of these deals only hurt the Sabres, especially the Pittsburgh one. You found a way to make our defense worse.

That being said the Kesler idea isn't half bad and I'd play with that idea.

However I'm certainly not trading our top D prospect (officially as of now) and Beaulieu for Hagelin and a guy who hasn't produced without Crosby.
Trading O'Reilly for futures and a pure offensive defenseman seems self destructive
And the Vancouver trade makes us worse across the board.

giving away guhle is breathtaking

Kesler isn’t being traded to play and Silfverberg is a producer at the NHL level. No one is filling their team with just 20 year olds. You need vets and players that know how to produce. One 27 year old isn’t going to hurt them. Sabres have a ton of prospects to fill when Pommers gone and if they don’t keep Hagelin. Fasching (who is better equipped for that role anyway), Smith, Olofsson, Pu, Asplund, and Kuokkanen, Gadjovich from the trades, not to mention unsigned prospects. Baptiste is not that good and has failed to capitalize on all the chances he was given, same with Bailey. I don’t know why Sabres fans are so dedicated to them. I believe the Sabres can be competitive next year, I’m not building a rebuilding roster

Faulk is not my favorite defenseman, but to call him a purely offensive defenseman is a bad take. If Dahlin starts on the left side, Scandella is the Sabres 3rd LH Dman. I had put Larsson there, who is good enough to take over that spot, which made Scandella expendable but then I was thinking that Pilot could outperform Nelson in camp and decided to go with that. You could argue for keeping him as the 3rd dman, but I wanted a 2C so I didn’t play Mittelstadt so high, get a goalie to mentor Ullmark, and the Sabres get a prospect out of it. Either way I’m not to broken up about it. That all also makes Guhle expendable. Everyone has over hyped the kid, but he’s not any better than McCabe. Bots knows Sheary, I think he’s worth a gamble, Beaulieu is a reclamation project and Guhle being a decent 2nd or 3rd pair prospect so they aren’t breaking the bank for guys with rings in a position of desperate need