Matt Nieto

Matt Nieto
Date of birth	5th November 1992
place of birth	Long Beach , California , USA
size	180 cm
Weight	86 kg
position	Left wing
number	# 83
Shot hand	Left
Draft
NHL Entry Draft	2011 , 2nd round, 47th position San Jose Sharks
Career stations
2008-2010	USA Hockey National Team Development Program
2010-2013	Boston University
2013	Worcester Sharks
2013-2017	San Jose Sharks
since 2017	Colorado Avalanche

Matthew Evan "Matt" Nieto (born November 5, 1992 in Long Beach , California ) is an American ice hockey player who has been under contract with the Colorado Avalanche in the National Hockey League since January 2017 . Before that, he spent four years in the San Jose Sharks organization .

Career

youth

Matt Nieto grew up with his two sisters in Long Beach , California , in a neighborhood marked by gang crime . His father worked as a dock worker, while his mother worked as a make-up artist . Nieto began roller hockey with the YMCA at the age of three . He started playing ice hockey a little later at the LA Hockey Club , an organization of the Los Angeles Kings , to which Emerson Etem and Rocco Grimaldi also belonged.

At the age of 14, Nieto left California and from then on attended the Salisbury School , a preparatory school in Salisbury , Connecticut, over 4,000 kilometers away with the help of a full scholarship . In his first and only season at the school, the winger scored 18 points in 28 games, drawing the attention of the USA Hockey National Team Development Program (NTDP). As a result, he moved to Ann Arbor in the state of Michigan in the summer of 2008 to be part of the central talent factory of the US ice hockey association USA Hockey .

With the National Team Development Program, Nieto took part in the game operations of the North American Hockey League and the following year in the United States Hockey League , the highest junior league in the USA, but also played a number of non-competitive games, especially against college teams . In addition, the NTDP forms the U18 national team of the USA, with which he participated in the 2009 and 2010 World Championships and won the gold medal there.

Boston University

After the 2009/10 season, he retired from the NTDP for reasons of age and decided, instead of switching to one of Canada's top three junior leagues, to study at Boston University , where he was also awarded a scholarship. As the second youngest player in the Terriers roster , he scored 23 points in 39 games in his first year at college, which aroused the interest of the scouts of the National Hockey League . Eventually he was selected in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft in 47th position by the San Jose Sharks , making him the first Californian to be chosen by the Sharks in the draft. As a sophomore, he significantly increased his personal statistics to over one point per game, an average that he did not quite achieve in the 2012/13 season.

San Jose Sharks

In April 2013 Nieto signed an entry-level contract with the San Jose Sharks from the National Hockey League (NHL), which shortly thereafter gave him to the Worcester Sharks , their farm team from the American Hockey League (AHL). There the winger finished the season with eleven appearances, four assists and two goals. The following season 2013/14 he started in the NHL squad of the Sharks and was sent to the AHL only once for two games during the season. In total, he came as a rookie on 66 NHL missions and scored 24 points scorer, and he particularly knew how to convince in the subsequent playoffs ; although the team lost to the Los Angeles Kings in the first round , Nieto contributed five scorer points in seven games.

In the 2014/15 season reached Nieto with 27 points in eighth place the team internal scorer list, missed the Sharks, however, for the first time in ten years the playoffs . Under the new coach Peter DeBoer , Nieto took on a clearly defensive role in the squad at the beginning of the 2015/16 season , but remained a regular player. In the summer of 2016, his expiring contract was extended by one year.

Colorado Avalanche

Matt Nieto in the Avalanche jersey, 2020

In January 2017, Nieto was to be sent to the Sharks' new farm team, the San Jose Barracuda , via the waiver . However, the Colorado Avalanche took over the contract from the American.

Achievements and Awards

• 2009 gold medal at the U18 Junior World Championship
• 2010 gold medal at the U18 Junior World Championship

Career statistics

Status: end of the 2018/19 season

				Regular season							Playoffs
season	team	league		Sp	T	V	Pt	+/-	SM		Sp	T	V	Pt	+/-	SM
2008/09	USA Hockey NTDP	NEAR		38	11	24	35	+26	14th
2009/10	USA Hockey NTDP	USHL		24	15th	14th	29	+20	19th
2010/11	Boston University	NCAA		39	10	13	23	-1	16
2011/12	Boston University	NCAA		37	16	26th	42	+18	26th
2012/13	Boston University	NCAA		39	18th	19th	37	+5	24
2012/13	Worcester Sharks	AHL		11	2	4th	6th	-4	0		-	-	-	-	-	-
2013/14	Worcester Sharks	AHL		2	2	3	5	+5	0		-	-	-	-	-	-
2013/14	San Jose Sharks	NHL		66	10	14th	24	-4	16		7th	2	3	5	+3	0
2014/15	San Jose Sharks	NHL		72	10	17th	27	-12	20th		-	-	-	-	-	-
2015/16	San Jose Sharks	NHL		67	8th	9	17th	-8th	10		16	1	2	3	+2	8th
2016/17	San Jose Sharks	NHL		16	0	2	2	-3	4th		-	-	-	-	-	-
2016/17	Colorado Avalanche	NHL		43	7th	4th	11	–9	4th		-	-	-	-	-	-
2017/18	Colorado Avalanche	NHL		74	15th	11	26th	+6	14th		6th	0	3	3	-1	2
2018/19	Colorado Avalanche	NHL		64	4th	19th	23	+2	8th		12	4th	3	7th	+6	2
NCAA overall				115	44	58	102	+22	66
AHL total				13	4th	7th	11	+1	0		-	-	-	-	-	-
NHL overall				402	54	76	130	-28	76		41	7th	11	18th	+10	12

International

Represented the USA at:

• U18 Junior World Championship 2009
• U18 Junior World Championship 2010

year	team	event	result		Sp	T	V	Pt	+/-	SM
2009	United States	U18 World Cup			7th	4th	0	4th	+5	12
2010	United States	U18 World Cup			7th	1	3	4th	+2	4th
Juniors overall					14th	5	3	8th	+7	16

( Legend for player statistics: Sp or GP = games played; T or G = goals scored; V or A = assists scored ; Pkt or Pts = scorer points scored ; SM or PIM = penalty minutes received ; +/− = plus / minus balance; PP = overpaid goals scored ; SH = underpaid goals scored ; GW = winning goals scored; ¹  play-downs / relegation )

Web links

• Player biography on the Colorado Avalanche website
• Matt Nieto at eliteprospects.com (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} David Pollak: San Jose Sharks rookie Matt Nieto helps his mom fight cancer. mercurynews.com, July 4, 2014, accessed August 9, 2015 . 
2. ↑ LA Jr. Kings alumni. (No longer available online.) Www.jrkingshockey.com, archived from the original on July 28, 2015 ; accessed on August 9, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ↑ Kevin Dillon: A hockey nomad: Matt Nieto's journey from California kid to BU hockey star. The Daily Free Press, October 11, 2012, accessed August 9, 2015 . 
4. ^ ^{A b} San Jose Sharks Media Guide 2014–2015 . San Jose Sharks Hockey Club, 2014, p. 79.