Matthew Quercia Takes The Helm As Captain For 2025-2026 Season
On Thursday, October 30th, 2025, Wheeling Nailers, ECHL Affiliate of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, announced that veteran forward Matthew Quercia is the captain of the Wheeling Nailers team for the 2025-2026 season. Before turning professional, Quercia spent three seasons at Boston University, where he played in 81 games and tallied nine goals and nine assists. Quercia attended Michigan Tech for his fourth year and played in 14 games, notching two goals and two assists.
Photo Credit: Leah Hollenbach/Olde City Sports Network
During the course of the 2024-2025 season, Quercia posted a career year, tallying 20 goals and 13 assists. Per the Nailers, his goal tally tied for second most on the team in the 2024-2025 season. Quercia also posted record PIMS on the team at 188 and appeared in 68 regular-season games. Something that the newly appointed captain is taking into the new season from last year is his scoring ability. “Biggest thing for me is keeping that scoring touch up. I think having 20 goals last year is big for me. I think trying to get that back and continue to grow on that is important.”
The Massachusetts native has dressed in 154 regular-season games for the Nailers. He has tallied 36 goals with 41 assists and a total of 389 penalty minutes. He is 46 regular-season games away from reaching 200 games as a Wheeling Nailers player, which, per the Nailers, has only been completed eight times before.
Olde City Sports Network spoke with Quercia when he was at the AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins training camp a few weeks ago about what he will bring to the locker room with his leadership under the new coaching staff. “I think we are going to have the same mentality in the locker room and group of guys in the locker room. Obviously, Wheeling is a unique place, so having guys that have been there before and are just able to build off what we have grown over the last few years. Obviously, with Ryan [Papaioannou] stepping in and Evan [McFeeters], I just think they are good guys and know what they are doing. I think they are going to bring a lot to the table, and we are going to be good.”
Samantha Wismer/Olde City Sports Network
Photo Credit: Stacey Gramlich/Olde City Sports Network
