More hot hockey players on-screen, please

Hockey isn’t just a sport in Canada — it’s a culture and identity that we live and breathe.

Canadians thrive on freezing arenas that are only warmed by a love for the game and the thrill of a win, accompanied by thousands of waving rally towels.

With a love for hockey also comes romance. Hockey romance novels are flying off shelves and many are being adapted for TV and film.

It should come as no surprise with the country’s love for the game that two popular hockey TV shows — Heated Rivalry and Off Campus — are filmed in Canada.

Heated Rivalry, based on Rachel Reid’s book series, is a gay hockey romance following Shane Hollander, played by Kelowna-born actor Hudson Williams, and Ilya Rozanov. Much of the Crave series was filmed in Hamilton, Ont., with some scenes also shot at McMaster University. A second season of the hit series is expected in spring 2027.

Based on Elle Kennedy’s book series, Off Campus is a college romance that follows four hockey players as they navigate love, sex, friendship, and drama. In Season 1, the Prime Video series followed music student Hannah Wells and hockey player Garrett Graham, with brief appearances of other couples’ storylines.

Off Campus, filmed at the University of British Columbia, has gained a devoted fanbase — both in the region and globally — leading to its renewal for a second season.

BookTok favourite Icebreaker is also under adaptation with Netflix.

While hockey provides a backdrop for both Heated Rivalry and Off Campus, the sport is a subplot to the character and romance-focused storylines. This balance of ice and heat allows hockey romances to appeal to different audiences, especially to viewers who may not be interested in the sport itself.

The surge of hockey romances overtaking our screens looks like it’s here to stay — and we’re pretty happy about it.

While some may argue the field has become oversaturated, the growing cult-like following for hockey romance coupled with a country obsessed with the sport, tells us the growth is here to stay. The growing popularity of the genre reflects audience interest rather than an overload of content.

The success of these hockey romance adaptations should come as no surprise in Canada. The sport is a cornerstone of Canadian life, giving authors all the more reason to write about a culture they’ve witnessed.

Both Reid and Kennedy are Canadian, as are many other hockey romance authors: The Off the Ice series by Bal Khabra, Becka Mack’s Playing for Keeps novels, and Lexi LaFleur Brown with a two book deal.

I don’t watch hockey, but love stories set on ice rinks are surprisingly engaging. The appeal of the genre has little to do with the technicalities of the sport and much more to do with the relationships between the characters. The will-they-won’t-theys, heartwarming storylines, and characters’ chemistry makes series like Off Campus entertaining, regardless of a viewer’s knowledge of hockey.

Rather than signaling an oversaturated market, the rise of hockey-romance reflects the importance of hockey in Canadian culture. The trope has taken the entertainment industry by storm and there’s still more room for hockey stories — both on and off the ice.