page_title: Matt Nieto
section_title: Amateur
hierarchical_section_title: Matt Nieto / Playing career / Amateur
caption_attribution_description: English: Matt Nieto in 2016
context_page_description: Matthew Evan Nieto is an American professional ice hockey left winger currently playing for the Colorado Avalanche of the National Hockey League. He was drafted by the San Jose Sharks in the second round, 47th overall, of the 2011 NHL Entry Draft.
context_section_description: Nieto began attending Salisbury School, a preparatory school, in Salisbury, Connecticut, at the start of his sophomore year of high school. In one season with the school's hockey team, he scored eight goals and ten assists in 28 games. The performance drew the attention of the USA Hockey National Team Development Program, and Nieto subsequently moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to play in the Program. In 2008–09, he played for the under-17 and under-18 teams, scoring 20 goals and 33 assists and six goals and eight assists, respectively. The next season, he played for the Program's United States Hockey League (USHL) team, scoring 15 goals and 14 assists; he also returned to the under-17 team, scoring one goal.
  After participating in the Program, Nieto was offered a chance to play major junior hockey for the Tri-City Americans of the Western Hockey League (WHL), but opted to attend college instead and play at the collegiate level. When choosing colleges, Nieto decided between Boston University and Boston College, and elected to attend the former on a full scholarship. In his freshman year, Nieto scored 10 goals and 13 assists. The next year, he scored 16 goals and 26 assists with a plus-minus rating of +19. In 2012, Nieto scored 18 goals, second-most on the team behind Dan O'Regan, and 19 assists. He ended his Terriers career with 44 goals and 102 points in 115 games.
  Nieto was ranked the 43rd-best prospect and the second-best player in the NCAA's Hockey East conference by NHL.com among the 2011 draft class. Hockey's Future stated he had struggled earlier in his career defensively, but had since improved. They added he had "explosive speed," and excels with puck handling and passing while moving. The website gave him a 7.5/10 talent score.
  In the Draft's second round, Nieto was selected by the San Jose Sharks with the 47th overall pick, their first pick of the draft. Nieto became the first Californian to be selected by the team. Regarding Nieto, Sharks Director of Scouting Tim Burke stated, "We were watching this guy over two years now. He has offensive ability on the rush and has shown he can do other roles, like penalty kill."
caption: Nieto during his tenure with the Sharks in 2016.
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D810", "Image XResolution": "240", "Image YResolution": "240", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 6.5 (Macintosh)", "Image DateTime": "2016:04:15 18:22:44", "Image ExifOffset": "218", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "922", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "16470", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/3000", "EXIF FNumber": "4", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "2200", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2016:04:14 19:15:04", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2016:04:14 19:15:04", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "11550747/1000000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "1", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "85", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "32", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "178211/87", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "178211/87", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "3", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "85", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "High gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "3037242", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[85, 85, 7/5, 7/5]"}