Matt Nieto
Pittsburgh Penguins Left Wing
Six career shorthanded goals against two on the power play, in 673 games.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013-14 | SJS | 66 | 10 | 14 | 24 | -4 | 16 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 124 | 8.1 | 14:05 |
| 2014-15 | SJS | 72 | 10 | 17 | 27 | -12 | 20 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 135 | 7.4 | 15:15 |
| 2015-16 | SJS | 67 | 8 | 9 | 17 | -8 | 10 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 90 | 8.9 | 13:10 |
| 2016-17 | SJS/COL | 59 | 7 | 6 | 13 | -12 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 85 | 8.2 | 14:56 |
| 2017-18 | COL | 74 | 15 | 11 | 26 | +6 | 14 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 84 | 17.9 | 14:55 |
| 2018-19 | COL | 64 | 4 | 19 | 23 | +2 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 86 | 4.7 | 13:46 |
| 2019-20 | COL | 70 | 8 | 13 | 21 | +7 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 85 | 9.4 | 13:30 |
| 2020-21 | SJS | 28 | 5 | 2 | 7 | -4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 45 | 11.1 | 14:00 |
| 2021-22 | SJS | 70 | 6 | 11 | 17 | -20 | 19 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 82 | 7.3 | 14:24 |
| 2022-23 | SJS/COL | 81 | 12 | 12 | 24 | -15 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 115 | 10.4 | 13:31 |
| 2023-24 | PIT | 22 | 1 | 3 | 4 | +5 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 7.7 | 11:37 |
| 2024-25 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 673 | 86 | 117 | 203 | -55 | 125 | 2 | 6 | 12 | 944 | 9.1 | 14:04 |
This Season So Far
The 2024-25 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.
Last Season
22 games, 1 goal and 3 assists for 4 points, 4 penalty minutes, 11:37 a night and plus-5. He took 42.2 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five over 203 minutes, the 9th percentile, and his ice went 8-4 against an expectation of 6.91-9.48.
A goal of finishing above the chances and five and a half of goaltending above them, across two hundred minutes. Twenty-two games is the fewest of any season in his eleven.
The Finesse Game
20 attempts at a median of 12 feet with 60 per cent of them from inside twenty — a very small sample from a very short season — 10 of those on goal, converted at 7.7 per cent against a career 9.11 across 944 shots.
Eighty-six goals in 673 career games. He is a speed winger who has spent a decade on the third and fourth lines and scores when he is put through the middle of the ice rather than around the outside of it.
The Physical Game
He is 5-11 and 189 and took 4 penalty minutes.
125 career penalty minutes in 673 games is one of the lowest rates on this roster. He kills penalties without taking them, which over eleven seasons is a genuine skill and not an accident.
The Intangibles
Forty-seventh overall in 2011 by San Jose, eleven seasons, three organisations, and 203 points in 673 games.
Six career shorthanded goals against two on the power play. A career minus-55 is the price of eleven seasons in the bottom six on clubs that were mostly behind.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2023-24 · 203 minutes
- Expected goals
- 42.2%
- 9th pct
- Shot attempts
- 42.5%
- 6th pct
share of the chances while he was out there
share of the attempts while he was out there
Goals while he was on the ice: 8 for, 4 against. Expected: 6.9 and 9.5.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe report ranks him 22 points above where the numbers do. It was written for a back edition, with the seasons that followed already known. Neither the agreement nor the gap says anything about the eye, and this report is excluded from the club-level comparison for the same reason. Why the numbers land there sets out the club he did it on, the minutes he played and the men he played them with.
Both bars are percentiles among the 652 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 65 on their own scale — against every other report's mean. The numbers bar ranks his share of expected goals. A gap is a disagreement about where he belongs, not two scales talking past each other.
Usual linemates
2023-24 · 203 minutes at five-on-five
- Noel Acciari86%
- Jeff Carteroff the roster56%
- Vinnie Hinostrozanow NSH17%
Share of his five-on-five ice time spent alongside each player, measured from shift charts. Special teams are excluded: a power-play unit is not a line.
Why the numbers land there
Five-on-five, 2023-24
- The club
- PIT took 51.1% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 42.2% — 8.9 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- 203 minutes at five-on-five — 0th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jeff Carter | 39.6% | 45.5% | 42.3% |
| Ryan Graves | 30.8% | 48.6% | 49.9% |
| Kris Letang | 42.2% | 42.2% | 50.0% |
39.6% together, 45.5% for him apart and 42.3% for Carter apart. He was better away from Carter, who was no worse away from him — the pairing cost him more than it cost Carter.
Expected-goal share while both were on the ice, and for each man in the minutes he played without the other. Apart is the pair subtracted from his own totals. It does not settle who was carrying whom — apart from each other, both were still playing with somebody — but it does say whether the share travelled when the pairing broke up.
Where he shoots from
goal on goal missed
20 unblocked shots in 2023-24, 1 of them goals. His median goal came from 9 feet. 60% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 15% from beyond forty.