Despite being offered a top-six role on a playoff team, Hobey Baker Award winner Jimmy Vesey decided not to sign with the Nashville Predators after his college career ended in order to become a free agent in August, which is an option available to college players after their senior season.

The Predators have since traded the former Harvard forward's rights to the Buffalo Sabres, and general manager David Poile acknowledged the rule makes dealing with prospects in the NCAA more complicated.

"It's not a perfect situation," Poile said, according to Adam Vingan of The Tennessean. "I guess if you're on our side, that's a loophole that the college players can run the gamut on four years and then be a free agent like Jimmy Vesey. I think it's a bad rule.

"I hope we can change it because now you see a lot of teams, because of the Vesey thing and a couple of other players, you see teams taking their players out of college maybe a year early to try to entice them with a contract, and so they don't have to face that situation."

Vesey was a 2012 draft selection of the Predators. Under the current CBA, a team holds exclusive rights to a drafted college prospect for four years, as long as the player stays a student the entire time.

The situation with Vesey hasn't deterred Poile from drafting college-bound players, though, as the Predators selected defenseman Dante Fabbro in the first round of this year's draft. Fabbro will play at Boston University this coming season.

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