Hat Tricks for Heroes: Lightning donate thrown hat-trick ball caps to veterans

Beneath his new Tampa Bay Lightning baseball cap and through a smile, Harold Roche began to cry.

Only moments before, the 86-year-old U.S. Air Force veteran was posing for a picture alongside Lightning alumni Mathieu Garon and Glen Metropolit. Roche took off his United States Air Force hat at the Tampa Health Care Veterans Affairs Medical Center and put on the Lightning logo.

Suddenly, he found himself overcome with emotion.

“Oh boy, this is my dream,” a teary-eyed Roche said moments after receiving a signed hat from the Lightning alumni. “I watch the team all the time. They’re really good guys, and I love them.”

It was a moment Roche will never forget, one made possible by many organizations coming together to donate baseball caps to veterans living and receiving care at the VA Tampa Healthcare System spinal cord injury (SCI) unit through a new program titled ‘Hat Tricks for Heroes’.

Lightning forward Anthony Cirelli played his part, too—the donated hats on Friday were those thrown onto the ice at Benchmark International Arena following No. 71’s hat-trick in an April 2 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins. A signed Cirelli jersey was also donated to the VA.

They were launched over the arena glass by passionate Lightning fans, and now they belong to Bolts fans who served their country. Garon and Metropolit signed the hats at the SCI unit on Friday before gifting them to service members.

Mark Van Trees is the executive director of Tampa nonprofit Support the Troops and has helped bring veterans as National Anthem guests to home Lightning games since 2012.

Ahead of the 2025-26 season, Van Trees got a new idea to recognize local heroes. Instead of letting hats sit around after a big night from a Lightning player, why not donate them to area veterans receiving healthcare through the VA?

Van Trees, a former community hero for the Lightning, washes the hats and provides them to military veterans through Support the Troops.

Elizabeth Frazier, Lightning executive vice president of community development and social impact, was elated when Van Trees reached out with the idea. The hats used to get donated before COVID, and now that has returned.

“We were donating them, and then it went away. With everything going on, all of a sudden we had hat-tricks and a bunch of hats,” Frazier said. “And we were like, ‘What can we do?’ Mark Van Trees to the rescue.”

Van Trees worked with Lightning Senior Vice President of Game Presentation John Franzone to start the initiative, and they’ve now been able to supply nearly 150 baseball caps across two hat-tricks this season.

Two weeks ago, Van Trees and the Lightning Community Foundation held their first hat donation at the VA mental health clinic, providing 60 hats before supplying another 80 this week.

‘A natural extension’

The Lightning Ice Crew collect the thrown hats, and Van Trees then takes them before sanitizing them in a special frame inside of a dishwasher.

“This is the busiest VA in the country. They did 2 million visits last year,” Van Trees said. “All of the polytrauma and spinal patients in the VA system come to Tampa. This is the center of excellence. They do the best care here for them, and we have a phenomenal response from them, and they're just good folks.”

Van Trees credits the Lightning for their passion in supporting area veterans. 

“The Lightning are by far the most passionate sponsors of the military. Jeff (Vinik)’s dad served in World War II, so they've been supporting the military for 15, 16 years now. It’s just a natural extension for them to step up and support veterans.”

Van Trees was eager to help veterans select a hat from the collection on Friday, saying many of the military members in the room are passionate Lightning fans.

“They just love it,” he said. “As you can see, almost every veteran wears a ball cap from what era they serve. They take off those hats and put on the Lightning hat, and it’s pretty cool.”

That included Roche as well as Jack Cook, who turns 100 years old this June and served in the U.S. Army from 1944 to 1946.

“I think it’s great,” Cook said of the Lightning players coming to the VA Hospital. “I’m from Kalamazoo, Michigan, and they’ve got lots of hockey up there. My brother in law, his sons played hockey from the time they were learning to walk.”

Martin Mayland’s favorite Bolt is Nikita Kucherov after beginning to watch the team about 10 years ago. The U.S. Army veteran (1965 to 1967) sported a Lightning t-shirt at Friday’s hat drive and meet-and-greet with Metropolit and Garon.

“It’s a fantastic idea,” he said. “It’s something good to do with them and better than them just laying around. I think it’s a great idea.”

With only two games remaining this regular season, it’s hard to know if another hat-trick is coming to Benchmark International Arena.

But whenever the hats do get tossed next, they’ll have a home—one that doubles as a ‘Thank you’ to those who served our country.

“Somebody with passion runs with it, and that's what makes it great,” Frazier said of Hat Tricks for Heroes. “We don't want to just hand the hats over or just write a check. We want to make sure that as part of our Lightning values that we give our time and our treasure to different nonprofit partners.

“What's so great about this is that five or six different stakeholders and segments within the Lightning were like, ‘That sounds awesome. I want to be a part of it.’ They've all jumped in, and I'm just grateful that we have an organization like this,” Frazier continued. “To have a hat-trick, which helped us win a game, that was amazing. But now let’s keep it going.”