Blades of glory: From roller-skating to the ice rink
How Nieto, a rarity in the league, has made it from Long Beach and onto a squad
You might not guess it watching Matt Nieto speed in on the forecheck. But his first time on the ice, as a curious kid from California, was quite the mishap.
“My sister dared me to go out while the Zamboni was out there,” he said, grinning. “And I ate [expletive]. My first step out there, I slipped and fell and I never wanted to ice skate again. My parents made me — and thank god they did.”
That brief foray on the ice was one of the first steps of his untraditional path to the NHL, which took Nieto from the mean streets of Long Beach to Boston University and eventually Pittsburgh, where he is settling into a bottom-six role.
The Penguins signed Nieto, one of the few active NHLers who are of Hispanic or Latino descent, to a two-year deal on the first day of NHL free agency.
Just like on that rink back in his old neighborhood, he is trying to find his footing. He has no points, four penalty minutes and a minus1 rating through four games. But the Penguins are excited about what Nieto might bring to the mix once he gets going. Coach Mike Sullivan feels he will be a strong fit here.
“He’s one of those guys that’s going to bring us a lot of energy. He can really skate,” Sullivan said recently. “He’s going to be a real good puck pursuit guy that can help us establish the game that we’re trying to play. He can get in on the forecheck. He can disrupt breakouts and put defensemen under pressure.”
Nieto has loved to lace them up and go, go, go since he was 2 — so much that he used to wear his rollerblades to bed. His grandfather picked him up a little plastic hockey stick and the boy wheeled all over with a ball on his blade.
His parents, both MexicanAmerican and born in the U.S., didn’t know much about hockey. But they could see that their middle child was already hooked.
“My parents said, ‘You know what? We’re going to sign you up for YMCA,’” Nieto said of the rec roller hockey league where he got his start. “I fell in love with it. And then I started watching ice hockey and I wanted to give that a try.”
And that’s what led to him sprawling out on the ice at a public skate that day.
Nieto was 5 when he got into organized ice hockey. In California, interest in hockey in the late 1990s and early 2000s was nothing like it is now, after grassroots efforts there have taken hold. There were rinks near Long Beach but limited competition, especially as he got older and ascended the youth ranks.
He remembers getting quizzical looks when he talked about playing hockey.
“My teachers wondered why I was gone for like two weeks for hockey tournaments. Even my friends didn’t really understand because it’s pretty unheard of there,” he said. “But now that I’m in the NHL, I have been reached out to by teachers and old friends. Now, I think they get why I was so into it back then.”
Nieto dreamed of one day playing for the Anaheim Ducks. One of his favorites from another team was Scott Gomez, the first MexicanAmerican in the NHL.
“When I was young, I had Scott Gomez,” he said. “He was a guy that I really looked up to and admired. Back then, he was one of the only few Hispanic players in the NHL. That put things in perspective for me and really helped me.”
Nieto became a top-notch youth player in the Los Angeles area, playing peewees with two other future NHL players in Emerson Etem and Rocco Grimaldi — pretty improbable given the dearth of high-level programs in Los Angeles then.
When Nieto was 14, he left home to go play at a Connecticut prep school. In an interview with the San Jose Mercury News, his mom, Mary, once said she believed that hockey “saved his life” because it got him out of Long Beach.
“I didn’t grow up in the best of neighborhoods. Hanging out with the wrong people, I guess you could say. So she’s probably right in some regard there,” Nieto said. “I’m grateful that I was able to grow up there. ... But I think once I moved, I cut a lot of ties. And everything just kind of worked out from there.”
Nieto went on to play with the U. S. National Team Development Program and then at Boston University, where he had 102 points in 115 collegiate games.
The Sharks picked him 47th in 2011, and Nieto spent his first four NHL seasons in San Jose. He split the next six years between there and Colorado.
During his career, he has drawn inspiration from his mother and the younger of his two sisters. His mom overcame a brutal bout with cancer. And sister Erin has Down syndrome and autism. She is nonverbal but knows how to say “83,” which is Nieto’s number. He will keep wearing it as long as he can.
He had 85 goals and 199 points in 651 games when he arrived in Pittsburgh — not bad for a kid from Long Beach who took a tumble his first time on skates.
Nieto smiled when asked if he hears from young players from similar backgrounds who say they look up to him, just like he did with Gomez back in the day.
“I’ve had a few. It’s pretty cool,” he said. “In California, I feel like there’s more Latino minor hockey players that are starting to play the game. I think the NHL’s marketing down there in terms of the Ducks and Kings also helps. I hope more and more people from that background can make it to this level.”