Warning: Light plot spoilers from Rachel Reid’s Game Changer book series ahead.
After months of eagerly awaiting any crumbs of information about the second season of Heated Rivalry — the beloved NSFW gay hockey romance — a slew of new cast members and the characters they are playing were recently announced.
But for those who haven’t read all of Rachel Reid’s Game Changer book series, which is Heated Rivalry’s source material, you might be scratching your head wondering who all of these brand-new people are.
The second season will bring Hudson Williams as closeted hockey golden boy Shane Hollander and Connor Storrie as bisexual Russian hockey star Ilya Rozanov back to TV screens alongside François Arnaud as hockey legend Scott Hunter and Robbie G.K. as the former smoothie barista Kip Grady. Joining them will be a total of seven new cast members who will be playing roles from the book series.
Season 2 will draw a lot of its story from The Long Game, the sixth book, which picks up a few years after the events of Heated Rivalry, when Shane and Ilya are navigating their new lives as boyfriends while dating in secret. In this new era, Ilya is traded to a different team, the Ottawa Centaurs, to be closer to Shane, and the two are running their charity together while seeing each other in secret.
Not only are characters from The Long Game now cast, but the announcement also let fans know that characters from other books in the series will also appear in the TV adaptation.
But who are these new characters?
Troy Barrett
Played by Charlie Gillespie (Julie and the Phantoms, Splitsville)
Deeply closeted hockey forward Troy Barrett first shows up in Tough Guy and Common Goal as the lackey of the homophobic and sexist player Dallas Kent. Following sexual assault allegations against Dallas, a confrontation between the two men is leaked, and Troy is traded to the Ottawa Centaurs. This, coupled with a sudden breakup with his boyfriend, put Troy in a bad headspace when he first joined the team.
Ilya befriends Troy while they are playing on the same team, and the two men come out to each other: Troy as gay and Ilya as bisexual.
Role Model, the fifth book in the series, follows the grumpy/sunshine romance between Troy and the Centaurs' social media manager, Harris Drover.
Harris Drover
Played by Justice Smith (I Saw the TV Glow, Now You See Me: Now You Don’t)
Harris Drover is the bubbly and outgoing social media manager for the Centaurs, where he falls for Troy, the team’s grumpy forward. Harris quickly becomes a beloved fixture of the Centaurs locker room as he creates videos for the struggling team’s social media presence.
Harris grew up on the Drover Family U-Pick Farm, an apple orchard that has been in his family for generations. He was also born with a rare congenital heart defect called truncus arteriosus. He has had to have major heart surgery, and the condition kept him from ever playing hockey himself despite loving the game.
He is also responsible for adopting a team dog named Chiron, who Ilya falls in love with and inspires him to adopt one of his own, named Anya.
Fabian Salah
Played by Shaheen Jafargholi (East Enders, Casualty)
Fabian Salah is an indie musician who falls in love with his childhood crush, hockey star Ryan Price, in Tough Guy.
Fabian is openly gay, part of the local queer community, and presents more femme. When he was a teenager, Ryan lived with his family in order to play hockey, and Fabian ends up falling for him. The two almost kiss before their lives take them in different directions, and it's more than a decade later when they reconnect, and Fabian realizes Ryan had a crush on him too.
Fabian and Ryan play a pivotal role in Shane and Ilya’s love story in The Long Game because the two couples go on a double date together while Shane and Ilya are still closeted, and Shane gets a better understanding of the diversity of queerness while watching one of Fabian’s concerts.
Ryan Price
Daniel Diemer (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Midnight club)
The anxiety-filled hockey star Ryan Price is an extremely tall enforcer with the Toronto Guardians. He is known as the toughest fighter in the league and is frequently traded between teams when they need someone to protect the other players.
Ryan struggles with his mental health and a dependency on pain medication in Tough Guy, the book where he falls for his childhood crush, Fabian.
Ilya and Shane have a short conversation about Ryan in the first season of Heated Rivalry, and in the book, Ilya learns about Ryan’s fear of flying when the two men sit next to each other on a plane. In The Long Game, Ryan joins Shane and Ilya’s hockey camp as a coach and is one of the few people who knows they are dating.
Dr. Galina Molchalina
Played by Milla Jovovich (Resident Evil, The Fifth Element)
Dr. Galina Molchalina is the therapist Ilya begins seeing in The Long Game when he starts experiencing depression he worries could get as bad as his mother's. Galina is especially comforting to Ilya because he can speak Russian with her, which he is rarely able to do since he stopped returning home to Russia or speaking to his brother after his father’s death.
Vanessa
Played by Emily Hampshire (Schitt’s Creek, The End of Sex)
Vanessa doesn’t have any interactions with Shane or Ilya, but she appears in Tough Guy, the third book in the series, which follows the relationship between anxious NHL player Ryan Price and confident musician Fabian Salah.
Vanessa is a feminist lesbian who works in a sex shop and runs a sex toy review blog. She becomes a close confidante for both Fabian and Ryan in the book. The actors who will play Ryan and Fabian haven’t been announced yet, but Ryan was briefly mentioned in the first season when Shane and Ilya talk about him being frequently traded.
Luca Haas
Played by Edvin Ryding (Young Royals, 28 Years Later)
Luca Haas is the rookie right winger for the Centaurs who appears in The Long Game as one of Ilya’s teammates. Luca has a schoolboy crush on Ilya growing up, and hero-worships him once they are on the same team. In his childhood bedroom, he even had a poster of Ilya from when he played on the Boston Bears hanging on the wall.
Luca is from Switzerland and gets some emotional support from Ilya when he admits to feeling homesick. Luca is also an artist who draws pictures for the kids when the team visits the local children’s hospital.
Wyatt Hayes
Played by Robert Naylor (Hair of the Bear, Alice in Borderland)
As the goalie on the Centaurs, Wyatt Hayes plays the role of the supportive friend in Tough Guy, Role Model, and The Long Game. He was originally a player on the Toronto Guardians, where he became friends with Ryan Price and played with Troy Barrett. Wyatt is a vocal ally who is supportive of his queer sister. Wyatt is married to Lisa Hayes, a doctor at a children’s hospital.
Farah Jalali
Played by Sabrina Jalees (Farming for Love, Roast Battle Canada)
Farah Jalali appears in The Long Game as Shane and Ilya’s sports agent. Shane comes out to her before his team, and when the two men’s relationship is outed, she is the first person they call. Farah reassures them that she will support them even if the hockey commissioner doesn’t.
Tarek
Played by Priyanka (Canada’s Drag Race)
Tarek is one of Fabian’s friends in Tough Guy and shares an apartment with Vanessa in Toronto’s Gay Village. He works as an office assistant at an immigration services organization. He hosts brunch at their apartment every Sunday, where everyone brings waffle toppings and cheap champagne.
Tarek is also responsible for Ryan finding out that Fabian is in love with him, thanks to a drunken admission.
Heated Rivalry season 2 is slated to debut in April 2027 on Crave and HBO Max. Here's everything else to know about the upcoming season.
Coach Wieb
Played by Kevin Zegers (Transamerica, Gossip Girl)
Coach Wieb is a former professional hockey player and the coach of the Ottawa Centaurs, the team Ilya joins when he moves to Canada for Shane. Web appears in both Role Model and The Long Game, where he comes out as bisexual to Ilya to show support.
Coach Wieb also had his own secret relationship with another hockey player while playing professionally, but when he confessed that he was falling in love with him, the other player didn’t react well.
Commissioner Roger Crowell
Played by Paul Gross (Tales of the City, The Middle Men)
Commissioner Roger Crowell is the head of the National Hockey League and is the main antagonist of the Game Changer series, appearing in Role Model and The Long Game.
Cromwell tries to silence Troy Barrett when he starts speaking out against Dallas Kent, and plays a significant role toward the end of The Long Game when Shane and Ilya are forced to talk to the league about their relationship.
