The annual sale offers fans a chance to acquire player-used gear including sticks, helmets, gloves, team-issued clothing, skates, goalie equipment and more.
The 2025 Tampa Bay Lightning locker room sale gave fans an opportunity to add to their team collection while also raising money to support numerous youth hockey initiatives that grow the sport in the Tampa Bay region.
The annual sale was conducted last Friday on the Pepsi Porch outside of AMALIE Arena and offered fans a chance to acquire player-used gear including sticks, helmets, gloves, team-issued clothing, skates, goalie equipment and more. There were more than 1,000 sticks up for grabs at this year’s event.
Leftover equipment from the sale will be available at next year’s event.
Around 1,000 people attended the 2025 sale. All of that money benefits the community and hockey development program run by the Lightning, one that engages area youth in the sport.
The event benefits Lightning fans through access to game-used equipment, and proceeds ensure young hockey players have access to a growing sport in the area, according to Tampa Bay Lightning community and hockey development coordinator Josh Dreith.
“It’s really crucial,” Dreith said of the sale’s impact on youth hockey, “especially for the sled hockey team. The funds are necessary for some of these programs.”
Enough funds were raised at this year’s sale to freeze costs for community hockey programming next season, according to Dreith.
This marked Lightning fan Andrew Hamilton’s fourth year at the sale. He and his brother, James, set their sights on some target items and didn’t leave it to chance—the brothers arrived at AMALIE Arena at 2 a.m. on Friday to secure the first spots in line.
Andrew arrived around 3 a.m. to previous years’ sales and ended up second in line, so he bumped up his arrival time for 2025 shopping. He was hunting this year in the Andrei Vasilevskiy department, or as he put it, “anything Vasy”. He hoped for one of the goalie’s blocker and glove sets, one of the goaltender’s stick and maybe leg pads.
Andrew’s job and hours in law enforcement can make attending games in person difficult, but he has built a full in-game experience at home. His living room features a Budweiser goal light and a smoke machine as well as game-used sticks from Vincent Lecavalier, Martin St. Louis and Nikita Kucherov.
He became a Lightning fan after his brother, James, introduced him to the sport. James also has a room dedicated to the Lightning gear and was right there with his brother at the front of the line.
"It was always a brainwash of football because we live in Florida. So it's football, football, football, football, football,” Andrew said. “And then we started hockey. And then I got my wife, she's like, 'I'm never going to another football game ever.' It's always hockey from now on.”
The Hamiltons left with plenty of Vasilevskiy gear as well as a Conor Geekie stick, player gloves and clothes.
Don Ellsworth was third in line after arriving at 3 a.m. He made the 40-minute drive from his home near Saint Leo, Florida. Ellsworth and his son use the Lightning gear for on-ice practice and attend four to five Lightning games per season.
He drove through the rain in the dark hoping to be one of the first people in line.
Many fans left the sale happy, and proceeds will help fund adaptive and disabled hockey programming such as the sled hockey team as well as other initiatives including ball hockey. Money is spent on a range of targets including equipment, travel, ice time and enrollment fees for players.
“I think the great part is that it offers the ability for the general public to get access to player-used equipment and authentic player apparel,” Dreith said. “It gives them access to that, but then it also helps us raise money for programs that really need it."
