{"id":28744,"date":"2018-07-06T18:13:29","date_gmt":"2018-07-06T22:13:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=28744"},"modified":"2020-12-26T16:39:14","modified_gmt":"2020-12-26T21:39:14","slug":"team-name-sign-rfa-matt-nieto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2018\/07\/06\/team-name-sign-rfa-matt-nieto\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado Avalanche Re-Sign RFA Matt Nieto"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/nhl-teams\/avalanche\/\" target=\"_self\">Colorado Avalanche<\/a> have re-signed restricted free agent <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/n\/nietoma01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Matt Nieto<\/a><\/strong> to a two-year contract worth $3.95 million, or $1.975 million per season AAV. This contract expires at the end of the 2019-20 season. Nieto is scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the contract.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Matt Nieto at $1.975 AAV. Two-year deal for RFA forward. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Avs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Avs<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Mike Chambers (@MikeChambers) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MikeChambers\/status\/1015352737175724032?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 6, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h1>Matt Nieto Re-Signs with the Colorado Avalanche<\/h1>\n<p>Drafted 47th overall in the 2011 NHL entry draft by the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/nhl-teams\/sharks\/\" target=\"_self\">San Jose Sharks<\/a>, Matt Nieto experienced a career revival over the last year and a half. After posting just two assists in 16 games for the Sharks in 2016-17, Nieto found himself on waivers. The situation was a major disappointment considering the strong first few years he had with the team. He became the odd-man out that year, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2017\/01\/05\/matt-nieto-avalanche-claim-winger-sharks\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the historically-bad Colorado Avalanche picked him up as a waiver claim<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Nieto immediately made an impact in Colorado, appearing in a career-high 15:56 in ice time through 43 games. His production doubled from where it was in those 16 games in a Sharks uniform too. Although he didn&#8217;t help the team win much (again, this team was bad), he laid the groundwork to regain his form from the first two years of his career in 2017-18.<\/p>\n<p>Last season, he scored 15 goals and 11 assists for 26 points in 74 games. Coach <strong>Jared Bednar<\/strong> favoured deploying Nieto in the defensive zone, where he started 68.0% of his shifts. He also had a career-high shooting percentage of 17.9%. His line with <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/c\/comeabl01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Blake Comeau<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/s\/soderca01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Carl Soderberg<\/a><\/strong> turned out to be extremely reliable and one of the most consistently used trios by Bednar. They were great in the first round series against the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/nhl-teams\/predators\/\" target=\"_self\">Nashville Predators<\/a> too, in which Nieto potted three points (all assists) in six games.<\/p>\n<h2>Matt Nieto&#8217;s Future<\/h2>\n<p>Nieto, who turns 26 in November, is a fast player who works hard in all areas of the ice. As a defensive-minded player who can top 10 goals per season, Matt Nieto fits in extremely well here. The Avalanche experienced a major turnaround in 2017-18 largely thanks to the speed they played the game at. That is something that Nieto does well despite being a bottom-six forward.<\/p>\n<p>There is reason to believe Matt Nieto still has a bit more to grow before he reaches his ceiling. Don&#8217;t be surprised when he improves on his career-best 15 goal season and breaks the 30 point mark for the first time.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4>Main Photo<\/h4>\n<p>Matt Nieto skates against the New York Islanders at the Barclays Center on February 12, 2017 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. The Islanders defeated the Avalanche 5-1. (Photo by Bruce Bennett\/Getty Images Sport)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Colorado Avalanche have re-signed restricted free agent Matt Nieto to a two-year contract worth $3.95 million, or $1.975 million per season AAV. This contract expires at the end of the 2019-20 season. Nieto is scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the contract. Matt Nieto at $1.975 AAV. Two-year deal [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2377,"featured_media":13669,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[34,28],"tags":[36,5738,1104,2569,662,955],"class_list":["post-28744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-avalanche","tag-colorado-avalanche","tag-hockey-news","tag-matt-nieto","tag-news","tag-nhl-free-agency","tag-nhl-news"],"modified_by":"Ben Kerr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2377"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}