{"id":846368,"date":"2026-08-05T00:48:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T00:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/846368\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T00:48:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T00:48:16","slug":"local-nhl-star-jake-neighbours-returns-to-airdrie-for-community-signing-event-discoverairdrie-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/846368\/","title":{"rendered":"Local NHL star Jake Neighbours returns to Airdrie for community signing event – DiscoverAirdrie.com"},"content":{"rendered":"

Airdrie residents had the chance to meet one of their hometown hockey heroes over the weekend as St. Louis Blues forward Jake Neighbours <\/a>returned for a public autograph signing at Morrison Trading Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The family-owned business hosted the meet-and-greet on Saturday, allowing fans to collect autographs, take photos and receive custom trading cards featuring Neighbours.<\/p>\n

Manager of operations Dallas Morrison said the event was about bringing the community together while celebrating one of Airdrie’s own.<\/p>\n

“It was really cool to have a local person who played hockey in Airdrie come back as a full-fledged NHL player and interact with the community,” Morrison said.<\/p>\n

Related Stories:<\/p>\n

Inspiring the next generation<\/p>\n

Morrison said one of the highlights of the day was seeing the impact Neighbours had on young hockey players.<\/p>\n

He recalled one young fan becoming so emotional after meeting the NHL forward that he began crying before Neighbours offered to take a photo with him.<\/p>\n

“It’s really heartwarming to be a part of that,” Morrison said. “Our goal with these events is to bring that connection to the sport, the people and the player. To be able to do that with a local player and the local community was amazing.”<\/p>\n

The event also featured exclusive trading cards commissioned from local artist Matt Stewart, who created original artwork of Neighbours for the occasion.<\/p>\n

More community events planned<\/p>\n

Morrison said the signing follows previous athlete appearances at the store, including Calgary Flames goaltender Dustin Wolf.<\/p>\n

He said the business intends to continue hosting athlete appearances but will remain selective about the guests it invites to ensure they resonate with local sports fans and collectors.<\/p>\n

“We want to make sure we’re bringing people that the community wants to see and that are worthwhile coming out for,” he said.<\/p>\n

Supporting the community<\/p>\n

The event also included a fundraising component, with members of the Airdrie Techmation Thunder hosting a barbecue outside the store in support of the Airdrie Food Bank.<\/p>\n

Morrison said incorporating a charitable initiative into public events is an important part of the family’s business philosophy.<\/p>\n

“We always try to tie a charity component to any public event we do,” he said. “It’s really important to our business and our family.”<\/p>\n

He also thanked the Airdrie community for supporting both the event and Neighbours during his return home.<\/p>\n

“We appreciate the whole Airdrie community for joining us.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Sign up<\/a>\u00a0for our daily newsletter and get the latest Airdrie and area headlines delivered straight to your inbox every afternoon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Airdrie residents had the chance to meet one of their hometown hockey heroes over the weekend as St.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":846369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-846368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=846368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/846369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=846368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=846368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=846368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}