NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, 73, recently told Hockey News that he binge-watched the first season of HBO Max’s queer hockey drama “Heat Rivalry” and thought it was “a great story.”
“Content, especially for young people, can be a bit provocative, so you need to find a balance in how it’s perceived,” he says.
Bettman added, “I thought the storyline was very compelling, and it was a lot of fun because you could see where they were choosing to do things that we (as a league) have done in the past, whether it was Sochi or the All-Star Game in Tampa. It was very well done.”
“Heated Rivals” has exploded in popularity since airing on HBO Max in late November 2025. The show, based on Rachel Reid’s Game Changers series of books, tells the story of two up-and-coming hockey stars, Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Story), whose secret long-running romance unfolds on the ice. The show has been renewed for a second season.
As evidence of the show’s universal appeal, stars Williams and Story carried the Olympic torch on Sunday as part of the Milan-Cortina 2026 relay in Feltre, Italy. They also presented at the Golden Globes, where they were escorted on stage by two UFC fighters. The day after the Globes, Williams traveled to Milan for Men’s Fashion Week, where he attended the Dsquared2 show and Giorgio Armani’s runway presentation.
During a recent appearance on the “Shut Up Evan” podcast, Williams said it was difficult to get over his sudden fame. He said, “I was talking to one of my agents yesterday and Conor and I were saying that you have to learn in about 30 days what a lot of actors get in five years.”
