3 NHL veterans earn a contract off the back of a PTO.

Teams across the National Hockey League put the squeeze on free agents over the course of the summer as yet another year of the NHL's salary cap remaining relatively flat put many teams in a tough spot as far as the cap is concerned.

This resulted in a number of quality NHL players agreeing to professional tryout offers (PTOs) instead of signing a contract outright in what was something of an unprecedented offseason as far as the NHL is concerned. As a result of this there have been several established veterans currently competing for a job in training camp, and thus far 3 of those established veterans have managed to earn themselves a new NHL contract.

The first was veteran defenseman Scott Harrington, most recently of the Columbus Blue Jackets, who earned himself a one year deal with the San Jose Sharks on Friday. Harrington spent most of last season with the Cleveland Monsters of the American Hockey League, but he has earned a one-way deal here which means he should hopefully earn himself some time at the NHL level.

It was also announced on Saturday that veteran defenseman Calvin de Haan had earned himself a new deal as well, this time with the Carolina Hurricanes. The 31 year old blue liner most recently appeared in 69 games for the Chicago Blackhawks last season, scoring 4 goals and adding 4 assists for a total of 8 points on the season.

Last but not least the Anaheim Ducks announced a signing of their own with veteran defenseman Nathan Beaulieu making good on his professional tryout offer. Beaulieu most recently played as a member of the Winnipeg Jets, although he was limited to just 25 games last season where he had no goals and 4 assists for 4 points.

There may still be more to come as far as these types of signings are concerned, although we are drawing relatively close to the start of the regular season. Of the 42 hopefuls who have signed a PTO this summer, only these 3 have been signed as of yet with Alex Galchenyuk, Andrew Hammond, Christopher Gibson, Liam Hawel, William Riedell, and Antoine Roussel all being released from their respective PTOs.