The surprise hit series Heated Rivalry has reopened a familiar debate: why, in the National Hockey League, visibility is still treated as a problem rather than a possibility. The show, which follows two top hockey prospects – one Canadian, the other Russian – in a secret relationship, highlights a persistent culture of silence within the sport.
Early in the first episode, Shane Hollander makes clear the stakes: “No one can know,” he tells Ilya Rozanov after their first tryst. This echoes an unofficial slogan in hockey, where players often feel they must hide aspects of their identity to avoid being seen as a distraction.
The NHL launched its ‘Hockey Is For Everyone’ initiative in 2017, aiming to attract LGBTQ+ fans. Commissioner Gary Bettman wrote in 2022 that inclusion drives performance. Yet that diversity report has since been scrubbed from the league’s website, and no subsequent report has been published.
In 2023, several players refused to wear Pride-themed jerseys, citing religious beliefs. Rather than making the jerseys mandatory, the NHL eliminated them, with Bettman calling them a “distraction”. This decision reinforced the idea that LGBTQ+ visibility is problematic within the sport.
Research by Cheryl MacDonald in 2019 found that gay players feared coming out because it might jeopardise their careers. “You don’t want to risk it not being OK,” she said. However, when players did come out, teammates generally reacted positively, suggesting a gap between perception and reality.
In the penultimate episode, a gay player kisses his boyfriend on the ice after a championship win. The crowd appears enraptured, not appalled. The scene poses a question: if such moments were common, would hockey’s culture finally change?
