Heated Rivalry, a television series, could do for the NHL what it has been trying to do for years: get more people emotionally invested in the game. But it won’t happen automatically. Here’s why.
Today, the National Hockey League (NHL) will drop the puck on another 82-game marathon, replete with banner raisings, rivalries, national broadcasts, fantasy leagues, hot takes, and familiar arguments over whether this is finally the year your team gets it done.
But this season begins with something really new: a new group of fans will watch. These fans are not necessarily people who grew up watching hockey with their parents. They may not know line combinations or understand why everyone in the arena is yelling about “icing.” Some may not have known the difference between the NHL and the AHL.
Who, then, are these people?
They found hockey through a romance series, Heated Rivalry. Somewhere between watching, talking about it, and getting increasingly invested, some of them will no doubt watch games this year and buy hockey tickets to see games in person.
The NHL didn’t create these fans. The league didn’t advertise, produce a documentary, put players on podcasts, or create social media content. Now the NHL has a season to figure out how to nurture and sustain their fandom. That’s because Heated Rivalry (Season 2) is coming.
How did the series come to be? Rachel Reid’s Game Changers books center on professional hockey. The television adaptation, Heated Rivalry, features Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov. They are fictional hockey superstars whose secret relationship develops within a professional sports culture that doesn’t make room for it. How so? They are lovers.
While Season 1 created curiosity, Season 2 could create a habit. But for that to happen, the league has to capitalize on the gift opportunity
The league has no shortage of stories to tell. The question is whether the NHL will tell them in ways that make sense to someone who didn’t grow up in hockey culture. They aren’t traditional fans, and so the league can’t treat them as such. There’s no giant sucking sound here. The league has to court these fans and entice them into fanhood.
The NHL doesn’t need to validate why someone got interested in hockey. It needs to give them reasons to stay. That won’t be easy. Why? The NHL has traditionally had a male-heavy audience, and its fan base is older than the audiences sports leagues generally pursue aggressively.
Heated Rivalry brings a very different audience into the conversation. Women. Younger viewers. Romance readers. Different, yes, but consumers, too, who could buy jerseys, watch broadcasts, attend games, follow players, and introduce friends to the sport. In other words, they could do what other leagues have done with a growing fan base. The NFL and NBA are prime examples.
Photo courtesy Forbes
But in this case, a more complicated conversation lies underneath it all. What is that? It’s queer men playing professional hockey. For years, the NHL has tried to position itself as inclusive. It introduced Pride Nights more than a decade ago, and teams have participated in LGBTQ+ initiatives and other community partnerships.
Yet, it has been more symbolic than functional: pro hockey has still not seen an openly gay player appear in an NHL game. Luke Prokop came out as gay in 2021 while under contract with the Nashville Predators and has continued his professional career in the AHL and ECHL.
So, the situation is a fascinating juxtaposition. The fictional world has imagined something that the real NHL has not yet experienced. And now the people who fell in love with that fictional world are at the doorstep of hockey as played in real life.
But to respond constructively, the NHL does not need to make the fictional world real. Rather, it needs to understand why that fictional world resonates, and it will also need to protect its players, and itself, from expected backlash. The players on the ice are not Shane and Ilya, fictional characters, and the league’s traditional audience includes many who “Embrace the Manosphere.”
So, the NHL needs to welcome a new audience without letting players become props. New fans should feel welcome. Existing fans should feel respected. And players should remain people, not extensions of whatever story is currently trending online.
The league doesn’t need to become Heated Rivalry. The show works because it is a romance. The NHL works because it is hockey. To move forward constructively, the league has to build a pathway to fandom without sacrificing what makes the sport compelling. That means explaining the game without talking down to newcomers, and telling player stories that extend beyond statistics.
Let fans see personalities. Make the arenas welcoming. Use social media to engage, not lecture. Recognize fandom communities rather than dismissing them.
And, perhaps most importantly, stop assuming that the person sitting in the cheap seats needs to have been a hockey fan for 20 years before her interest counts.
Photo courtesy of The New York Times
The NHL has an entire 2026–27 season to build that relationship. And then Heated Rivalry returns. Season 2 is scheduled for spring 2027, and filming began in Toronto in August. Crave and HBO Max will again carry the series in their respective markets.
That means the league cannot wait until the second season premieres to figure out what this audience means. By then, the opportunity will already be moving. The smarter play is to spend this season learning.
–Who are these new fans?
–Which teams are they following?
–Which players are they becoming attached to?
–Are they watching games after discovering the show?
–Are they buying tickets?
–What makes them return?
–What makes them feel unwelcome?
–What will turn Heated Rivalry fans into NHL fans?
The irony is that the NHL does not actually have to manufacture a special version of hockey for these fans. It just has to let them discover the version that already exists.
–The rivalries.
–The speed.
–The length of an 82-game season.
–The heartbreak of a playoff series.
–The joy of an overtime winner.
–Falling in love with a player who suddenly becomes your favorite for reasons you cannot explain.
That is how fandom works. You enter through a door, and then the sport becomes yours.
Heated Rivalry opened a door for many people. Now the NHL gets to decide how to manage the delicate matter of what to do next. The question is: Does the NHL know how?
