Heated Rivalry Highlights NHL's Ongoing Struggle with LGBTQ+ Inclusion
Heated Rivalry is a 2025 Crave/HBO series that centers on NHL prospects Shane Hollander, a Canadian, and Ilya Rozanov, a Russian. The show explores their on-screen relationship, framed around a secret that challenges the culture of silence pervasive in ice hockey regarding LGBTQ+ issues.
The series aims to expose the barriers to acceptance for LGBTQ+ players within the hockey community. It highlights how the NHL has historically approached LGBTQ+ visibility cautiously. Since launching the Hockey Is For Everyone initiative in 2017 to promote inclusion, the league has struggled with balancing support and distraction, as evidenced by incidents such as Ivan Provorov's refusal to wear a Pride-themed jersey in January 2023. Following this, several teams dropped Pride jerseys, with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman citing the matter as a distraction.
A 2022 NHL diversity and inclusion report connected inclusion to team performance, but the report has since been removed from the NHL website. Despite attempts to address diversity, official commentary remains limited, and LGBTQ+ visibility is still often treated as a disruption rather than an opportunity for growth.
Research from a 2019 You Can Play study, summarized by Cheryl MacDonald, found that openly gay players generally received positive teammate reactions, with homophobic remarks decreasing and team banter becoming more inclusive. In Heated Rivalry, a poignant scene features a kiss between a gay player and his boyfriend on ice, symbolizing a public coming out, which elicits a positive crowd reaction. However, the show does not deeply explore broader public or institutional responses beyond this moment.
While fan interest in the series suggests potential to attract new viewers, the NHL's public stance remains cautious, portraying Heated Rivalry as a distinct but limited driver of fan engagement rather than signaling a substantive shift in league policies regarding LGBTQ+ inclusion.
