Leak: New Tampa Bay Lightning Black Third Jersey

An apparent leak of a new Tampa Bay Lightning third jersey has been spotted and posted to the Internet.

The photo shows a black sweater with white and blue striping on the sleeves, a thin blue stripe around the collar, and a slightly modified version of their roundel-styled secondary sleeve patch logo on the front.

Take a look:

There is a single white stripe around the waist, and the back inside collar shows a black, silver, and blue design. This design notes the three seasons the club has won the Stanley Cup (’04, ’20, ’21), with each win separated by a lightning bolt.

The crest on the chest is very similar to the secondary logo used by the Bolts since 2011, but with a minor change. The circle in the typical logo is filled in with blue, this version changes this to remove the inside circle fill leaving only have a thin blue outline.

Observers are making a connection between the sleeve striping to the “Victory Stripes” that once resided under each arm of the original Lightning uniforms — the idea there was to include a design only visible when a player raised their arms in celebration, either following a goal, following a victory, or while raising the Stanley Cup over their heads. While they are similar, they’re not exactly the same in quantity or in colours.

***“Victory Stripes” seen under the arm of the original Lightning uniform***

We’re not sure when these new uniforms may be unveiled, but it seems most likely to be a late 2023-24 addition rather than a very early one for 2024-25.

This would be the fifth third uniform in Tampa Bay’s history, following the infamous thunderstorm uniforms from 1996 to 1999, the blue “BOLTS” jersey from 2008 to 2014, the black version that followed from 2014 to 2017, and then the most recent, the black and grey sweater unveiled in 2019 and worn until 2022.