What's the 'Scoop' with Matt Nieto

Pittsburgh feels like a great fit for Matt Nieto for a number of reasons. One of them has to do with his younger sister Erin, who has Down syndrome and autism, and is high support needs.

"She knows that I'm on the Penguins now, which she's really excited about because she loves penguins, so it just works out perfectly," Matt said with a smile.

While Erin has a limited vocabulary, she learned how to say '83' when that number got assigned to Matt during his rookie year in San Jose, which is why he'll never change it. "That's just kind of what she knows me by, and even if my family's watching a game on TV, she knows that I'm number 83," he said. "So, it's something that I have always kept, because that's how she knows it's me."

Matt also has an older sister, with the three Nieto siblings growing up in Long Beach, California. It's in the southern part of the state, about a six-hour drive from San Jose, where Matt had two stints with the Sharks. The 2011 second-round draft pick broke into the NHL for the 2013-14 campaign and played parts of three seasons there before getting traded to Colorado at the deadline in 2017.

Nieto remained with the Avalanche through the 2019-20 season before returning to San Jose, where he played parts of three more seasons - this time alongside good buddy Erik Karlsson - before Colorado again acquired him at the deadline this spring.

Now, Nieto is looking forward to heading East and getting started with the Penguins. Get to know more of the 'Scoop' on the 30-year-old forward below.

Hockey nickname

Niets (pronounced NEETS) or Nietsy.

Best friends in the league

During his time in San Jose, Nieto became close with Timo Meier, drafted ninth overall in 2015. The two of them played together in 2016-17, and were reunited when Nieto returned to the Sharks in 2020. "Me and him lived in the same building and we're both single guys, so we spent a lot of time together while everyone else was with their girlfriends and families," Nieto said.

Then, during his time in Colorado, Nieto bonded with Nathan MacKinnon over video games. "Me and him used to play Fortnight together a lot, so we spent a lot of time gaming," Nieto said. "He's just an awesome guy, too. So, I'd say those two are probably my best friends."

Origins in the sport

"It was honestly really random, because no one in my entire family has played hockey," Nieto said. "But I was really into rollerblading, and I used to sleep in my rollerblades and never take them off, so my grandpa got me a mini hockey stick. Then I was playing with that all day as well, so my parents signed me up for roller hockey. After a couple of years of that, I tried ice hockey, and just fell in love with it and kept going."

The Anaheim Ducks were his favorite team growing up, and because of that, Paul Kariya was his favorite player. "I'm not the biggest guy, and neither was he. So, it was just a great player to look up to, and always loved him in his time when he was a Duck," Nieto said. As for his favorite player from the District 5 Ducks? "I feel like I gotta go with Goldberg, I think," Nieto said with a laugh. "He's just hilarious."

Since there wasn't a lot of competition in California - "we would play the same teams over and over every weekend" - Nieto ended up moving to Connecticut before his sophomore year of high school to attend prep school. He then spent two years with the U.S. National Team Development Program, where he was teammates with Bryan Rust, before playing college hockey at Boston University.

No place like home

Having lived away from home since the age of 14, whenever Nieto is back in Long Beach, spending time with friends and family feeds his soul. He loves the weather and spending time by the ocean, and - being of Hispanic descent on both sides - has a deep appreciation for the food, as California is known for its Mexican cuisine.

During the holidays, tamales are always on the table, as per family tradition. "And actually, I have family in New Mexico that owns a restaurant, and so they always send a bunch of food over to us for Christmas," he said. "Which is amazing, because it's so good."

Grill master

Speaking of food, Nieto has gotten really into grilling this summer. "Just like learning to grill and smoke different meats has definitely been a hobby of mine this offseason," he said. So far, the winner has been his smoked tri-tip streak. "It's been fun to learn, for sure," he said.

One of Nieto's other main interests away from the rink is video games. "That's a nice way to get my mind off of hockey, especially during the season," he said. Nieto also loves watching UFC, and still enjoys playing tennis, as he competed until high school.

He also likes getting insight into athletes from different sports, saying, "I watched that Quarterbacks show on Netflix and it was cool to watch (Patrick) Mahomes behind the scenes. Then right now, Aaron Rodgers is on Hard Knocks, so that's been awesome to watch, just kind of how they carry themselves and prepare and stuff."

While both Mahomes and Rodgers are in the NFL, don't let that fool you - Nieto says he doesn't know a ton about football itself. So when he plays fantasy football, Nieto tries to partner with a member of the support staff and let that person run the team." I'll just spot the money for it, then if we do crappy, I always have someone to blame," he said with a laugh.