When St. Louis Blues winger Jake Neighbours began learning the basics of American Sign Language, it was a way to communicate with people close to him.
Inside the Calgary home of Neighbours’ good friend and youth hockey teammate, Ozzy Wiesblatt, communication didn’t always rely on sound. It moved through hands, facial expressions, and sometimes a simple stomp on the floor to send a vibration through the house. Wiesblatt’s mother, Kim White, is deaf, and the family introduced Neighbours to a different way of understanding communication.
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That perspective still shapes how the 24-year-old Neighbours views accessibility, and now aligns with a broader effort by the Blues.
The team will host its first ASL Awareness Night on April 14 at Enterprise Center against the Pittsburgh Penguins, an initiative aimed at making games more accessible to Deaf and hard of hearing fans. For those unable to attend, the Blues are also partnering with the NHL and ESPN on an ASL-focused alternate broadcast available on ESPN’s streaming platform.
“It’s important to me,” says Neighbours, who last year helped create a line of Blues hats, two of which incorporated ASL in the design. Both hats, which benefitted St. Louis-based DEAF, Inc., sold out quickly. “I think the job the NHL and the Blues have done over the last couple years in trying to create awareness, it’s been great. I think it’s caught a lot of momentum. You’re starting to see a lot of rinks have the subtitles around the arena, and there are so many more ASL messages out there. I know the Deaf community appreciates it—at least the one that I’m close to. It’s nice to see that it’s picking up steam.”
The April 14 game will feature several elements designed specifically for Deaf and hard of hearing fans. The alternate broadcast will include real-time play-by-play and color commentary delivered entirely in American Sign Language—led by Deaf commentators—while in-arena programming will feature ASL-focused content throughout the night, including signing during the national anthem. Fans who purchase a theme ticket will also receive a Blues ASL-themed T-shirt. The Blues say a portion of the proceeds from the evening will be donated to DEAF, Inc.
For the Blues, ASL Awareness Night is part of a larger effort to make the game more inclusive and reach fans in new ways.
“The NHL’s Hockey is For Everyone platform is something the Blues organization takes to heart,” says Roger Hacker, the team’s chief communications officer. “We are always looking for ways to authentically welcome new groups of fans to our sport, and that’s where the inspiration for nights like Autism Acceptance and ASL Awareness comes from. Our ASL Awareness Night had the benefit of Jake Neighbours’ personal connection to the ASL community that demonstrated the local passion among that community for Blues hockey through the sales of his hat collection last year.”
Neighbours has now been studying ASL for eight years, and while he stresses he’s far from fluent in it, he’s proficient enough to get by in conversation. “I know enough to communicate at a pretty slow rate,” he says with a smile. “But I can do it. I’m still learning every day to try and pick up new words so that it becomes easier.”
To help promote the April 14 game, Neighbours signed a message for fans.
He believes that making an effort to reach fans in different ways can have a lasting impact.
“I think it’s important to make hockey more accessible and show [those who are Deaf and hard of hearing] that hockey can be a game that they can watch and partake in,” Neighbours says. “It’s for everybody. That’s something that’s been pretty cool.”
As part of the team’s broader efforts around inclusion, the Blues will also host Autism Acceptance Night on Thursday, April 9. The night will focus on celebrating neurodiversity and creating a welcoming game-day environment, with proceeds supporting Easterseals Midwest. Fans who purchase a theme ticket will receive a Blues lunchbox giveaway.
