Welcome back to Man In The Crease, your one-stop hockey shop…just kidding, I’m not about to dive into hockey politics like the fictional podcast that narrates Heated Rivalry. However, I do have big news to share regarding Season 2 of the popular gay hockey show. It was announced that Heated Rivalry has cast two new actors to be featured alongside Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie in Season 2, and it turns out one of the show’s newest stars manifested his role years ago.It’s no secret that production for Heated Rivalry Season 2 is in full swing. This upcoming book-to-screen adaptation will follow Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander’s relationship as a new couple, and it will be based on Rachel Reid’s novel The Long Game. Many fans wondered if Season 2 might also incorporate another couple from the Game Changers universe, Harris and Troy, and now we have an answer. Per Heated Rivalry’s Instagram, actors Justice Smith and Charlie Gillespie have been cast as Harris and Troy, respectively. And Gillespie seemingly manifested this role during an interview with E! News in 2020:My dream role is…I’ve got so many; I want to do so much. I want to be a cowboy. I want to be an astronaut. I want to be, like, an NHL player. I want to do so much. You know what I mean? I think that would be so much fun. I mean, a cowboy would be cool. An NHL player would be the most badass thing, I think.Gillespie, who is best known for his role as Luke in Netflix’s Julie and The Phantoms, was born and raised in Canada, so being cast in Crave's biggest show is so full circle. It also makes sense why his dream role is playing an NHL player, and he’s got the ice experience to prove it. In fact, the Suze actor played a hockey player last year in the movie Shattered Ice. However, his upcoming role in Heated Rivalry Season 2, which should be available to stream with an HBO Max subscription sometime in spring 2027, will be a lot different from the coming-of-age drama. Gillespie will play Troy Barrett, a closeted hockey player who gets traded to Ottawa, the same team Ilya Rozanov captains in The Long Game. Enter Harris Drover (Justice Smith), the team’s openly gay social media manager. The two get off on the wrong foot at first, but eventually break the ice, leading to a budding friendship that turns into so much more, as is written in Harris and Troy's book, Role Model. Over the course of their novel, Harris also helps Troy understand what life as an openly gay man can look like, and the community that comes with it.The show's creator, Jacob Tierney, has assured fans that Season 2 will not only stay true to the books, but also focus on Shane and Ilya’s story. However, Role Model and The Long Game have overlapping timelines and characters, and this casting announcement is confirmation that Harris and Troy’s love story will play out alongside Hollanov’s. I’m expecting a similar setup to Season 1, Episode 3, where we got a standalone episode of Kip and Scott’s relationship that later came into play within Ilya and Shane’s story.This casting announcement might be unexpected, but for the most part, Heated Rivalry fans in the Instagram comments seem excited about these actors. How can they not, when Jacob Tierney said Smith and Gillespie “immediately connected with the vulnerability and resilience at the core of these characters” and Gillespie himself manifested this role for himself six years ago. I’m really hoping Heated Rivalry Season 2 does the Game Changers books justice, but this new cast is a great start, and I can’t wait to see their chemistry on screen. Spring 2027 cannot come soon enough!