Who Is Ilya Rozanov? The Short Answer
Ilya Rozanov is the Russian hockey star and co-lead of Heated Rivalry, the rivals-to-lovers story Rachel Reid tells across her Game Changers novels and the TV series of the same name. He’s the on-ice rival, and eventually the love interest, of Canadian player Shane Hollander. In the show he captains the Boston Raiders, and he’s played by American actor Connor Storrie.
His full name is Ilya Grigoryevich Rozanov, and teammates call him “Roz.” So if you’re searching for Ilya’s real name, that’s the answer inside the story. If you mean the person behind the character, that’s Connor Storrie, who isn’t Russian (more on that below).
Ilya actually first shows up as a side character in Game Changer (2018), the first book in the series, before becoming a co-lead in Heated Rivalry (2019) and The Long Game (2022). That split between page and screen is where most of the confusion starts: readers know one version of his life, and viewers who started with the show are getting a slightly different one.
| Detail | Answer |
|---|---|
| Full name | Ilya Grigoryevich Rozanov |
| Born | Moscow, Russia (the books put his birthday at June 15, 1991) |
| Position | Center |
| Team in the books | Boston Bears (drafted first overall in 2009), then Ottawa Centaurs from 2018 |
| Team in the show | Boston Raiders, as captain |
| Rival and love interest | Shane Hollander |
| Played by | Connor Storrie |
| Where to watch in the US | HBO Max (Crave in Canada) |
| First appearance | Game Changer (2018) |
Ilya Rozanov’s Book Origins vs. TV Reimagining
The short version: the TV series keeps Ilya’s core personality and his relationship with Shane, but reworks his team affiliation and expands his backstory beyond what the novel covers. If you’ve only read the books or only watched the show, you are missing pieces the other format fills in.
| Detail | Book Canon | TV Canon |
|---|---|---|
| Teams | Boston Bears, then Ottawa Centaurs from 2018 | Boston Raiders |
| League | The NHL, with fictional teams | Major League Hockey (MLH), a fictional league |
| Brother | Andrei, a minor presence | Alexei, with a much bigger role |
| Backstory depth | Focused mainly on adult career and romance | Expands his childhood and life in Russia |
| Look | Hazel eyes, bear tattoo on his chest | Blue eyes, no bear tattoo |
The biggest shift is depth, not identity. The show didn’t change who Ilya is at his core. It gave the character more screen time to sit in his history, particularly the parts of his life in Russia that the novel only references in passing.
Ilya Rozanov’s Hockey Career: Position, Draft, Stanley Cups
Ilya plays center, and in the novels he’s drafted first overall by the Boston Bears in the 2009 NHL entry draft. That draft position matters because it sets up his rivalry with Shane from the jump, since the two are competing for the same kind of career spotlight almost immediately.
His book-canon career timeline includes a 2012 playoff run that ends in a loss to the Montreal Voyageurs, a 2014 Winter Olympics captaincy for Russia, and a 2014 Stanley Cup win where he also takes home MVP honors. He later moves to the Ottawa Centaurs in 2018 and returns to a playoff run in 2021.
This entire timeline is book canon. In the show, Ilya is drafted by the Boston Raiders in 2009 and plays in Major League Hockey, a fictional league, so if you’re watching the series and trying to match it to real NHL history, you’ll hit a wall. That’s intentional, not a mistake on the show’s part.
What Teams Do Ilya and Shane Play For?
In the books, Ilya plays for the Boston Bears and Shane plays for their archrivals, the Montreal Voyageurs. In the show, those teams become the Boston Raiders and the Montreal Metros. Both versions are modeled on the real Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens rivalry.
[Spoiler label: book timeline ahead]
The book timeline keeps moving after that. Ilya signs with the Ottawa Centaurs in July 2018, and Shane leaves Montreal as a free agent in 2021 to join him, so by the end of The Long Game they’re teammates in Ottawa.
| Player | Books | TV series |
|---|---|---|
| Ilya Rozanov | Boston Bears (2009 to 2018), Ottawa Centaurs (2018 on) | Boston Raiders (captain) |
| Shane Hollander | Montreal Voyageurs (2009 to 2021), Ottawa Centaurs (2021 on) | Montreal Metros (captain) |
What Powers or Skills Define Ilya Rozanov?
Ilya doesn’t have literal powers. This is a hockey romance series, not a fantasy show, so the search term “Ilya Rozanov powers” is really asking about his on-ice reputation and public persona.
On the ice, he’s built as abrasive and aggressive, the kind of player opponents genuinely dislike facing. Off the ice, he cultivates a playboy public image, and that image is deliberate.
The real character depth lives in the gap between that public persona and his private reality. Underneath the swagger is someone dealing with isolation and depression, which the story treats as the actual engine of his behavior rather than a footnote. That contrast, brash exterior and guarded interior, is what makes him more than a stock “arrogant rival” character.
Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander: How the Rivalry Became a Romance
[Spoiler label: relationship arc ahead]
The short answer: their rivalry starts in juniors and eventually becomes a decade-spanning romance, with the relationship going public around 2021. It’s the emotional spine of the entire franchise, not a subplot.
The friction is visible as early as the 2009 World Junior Championships, and it intensifies once they’re drafted to competing teams.
Their public friendship gets announced in November 2018, years before the romantic relationship becomes public in March 2021. That gap between “friends” and “together” is exactly the slow burn that made the books popular in the first place, and the show leans into it rather than rushing it.
Ilya Rozanov’s Family and Backstory
[Spoiler label: backstory details ahead]
Ilya was born in Moscow, and his early life includes real weight: his father was a police officer, and his mother died by suicide when Ilya was twelve. He has an older brother, Andrei (renamed Alexei in the show), and the relationship between the two is strained.
This backstory is the psychological key to why Ilya acts the way he does as an adult. The story treats that early loss as the root of his guarded, defensive persona, and the show uses this history to explain his public playboy act rather than just presenting it as a personality quirk.
What’s confirmed is the outline above: the family structure, the mother’s death, and a strained sibling relationship. The show gives his brother far more screen time than the books do, so the sibling story you see on TV is harsher than the one on the page.
Is Ilya Rozanov Based on a Real Hockey Player?
No single real player is the blueprint, though the author has named her influences directly. Rachel Reid has cited the real-world Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin rivalry, plus HBO’s 24/7 documentary series, as inspiration for the Ilya and Shane dynamic.
She’s also referenced players like JaromÃr Jágr, Teemu Selänne, and Ilya Kovalchuk as texture for the character, with Mikhail Sergachev cited as an influence on how Ilya’s speech pattern reads on the page. Reid has been clear in interviews that Ilya isn’t a stand in for one specific athlete, more a composite built from real hockey culture.
Who Plays Ilya Rozanov in the Heated Rivalry TV Series?
Connor Storrie, an American actor, plays Ilya Rozanov in the Heated Rivalry TV series. He took on a Russian accent specifically for the role, a choice that drew attention in coverage of the show’s finale.
Storrie was born in Aurora, Colorado, in 2000, and his Russian dialogue and accent became one of the most praised parts of the show, earning him a TCA Awards nomination for Individual Achievement in Drama. He also picked up a 2026 Emmy nomination for hosting Saturday Night Live, even though Heated Rivalry wasn’t eligible for the 2026 Emmys. It’s a detail that answers the “is Ilya really Russian” question definitively: the character is, the actor isn’t.
Confirmed vs. Rumored: Ilya Rozanov Facts vs. Fan Theories
Here’s the trust test for this whole piece: does Ilya sleep with other people during the story, does a plane crash actually happen, and does he ever quit hockey? All three have clearer answers in the books than the online chatter suggests.
| Claim | Status |
|---|---|
| Does Ilya sleep with other people? | Yes, before he and Shane commit. After that, they’re exclusive |
| Ilya Rozanov plane crash | No crash. There’s a real mid-flight engine failure in the books, and the plane lands |
| Does Ilya stop playing hockey? | No. He and Shane end The Long Game as Ottawa teammates |
Sources: Heated Rivalry (2019), Role Model (2021), and The Long Game (2022) by Rachel Reid.
For most of the years covered in Heated Rivalry, Ilya and Shane’s arrangement is secret and undefined, and Ilya has other partners, including a friends-with-benefits setup with Svetlana Vetrova, who also appears in the show. That changes when they commit to each other at Shane’s cottage in the summer of 2017. From that point on, the books keep them exclusive.
The plane crash rumor has a real source; it just gets exaggerated. In January 2021, Ottawa’s team plane suffers an engine failure mid-flight, an event shown in both Role Model and The Long Game. Ilya, convinced he might die, sends Shane goodbye messages. The plane lands, and the scare pushes the relationship forward rather than ending anything.
Ilya doesn’t retire from hockey, either. The Long Game ends with him and Shane starting a new season on the same Ottawa roster, and Unrivaled picks up with them still playing together.
What Happens to Ilya Rozanov Next?
Ilya is set to headline Unrivaled, the seventh Game Changers novel, now due June 1, 2027 after Rachel Reid pushed it back from its original September 29, 2026 date. It follows Ilya and Shane as a married, publicly out couple playing on the same team. For a character who’s been a co-lead in two books and a recurring presence in the other four, getting his own installment is a real shift in focus.
On screen, season 2 of Heated Rivalry is expected in spring 2027, streaming on HBO Max in the US.Frequently Asked Questions
Is Ilya Rozanov Russian in real life?
No. Ilya Rozanov is played by Connor Storrie, an American actor who adopted a Russian accent specifically for the role. The character is Russian within the story, born in Moscow, but the actor portraying him is not.
What team does Ilya play for in Heated Rivalry?
In the novels, Ilya plays for the Boston Bears and later moves to the Ottawa Centaurs. The TV series reworks this into a Boston-based team within a fictional league, so the team names don’t match up exactly between book and show.
Does Ilya stop playing hockey in Heated Rivalry?
No. According to the sequel novel’s synopsis, both Ilya and Shane are still playing professionally when the story continues, which rules out the theory that his career ends abruptly.
Is the Ilya Rozanov plane crash real?
There’s no confirmed source for this plot point in either the novels or the series as currently reported. Treat it as unverified fan speculation until the show or publisher confirms it directly.
Who is Ilya Rozanov’s love interest?
Canadian hockey player Shane Hollander. Their relationship starts as an on-ice rivalry in juniors and develops into a romance over roughly a decade, with the couple going public in 2021 according to the timeline established in the books.
The Bottom Line
Ilya Rozanov works as a character because the show and the books are telling two versions of the same guy, and most of the online confusion comes from people not realizing that. Once you separate book canon from TV canon, the plot holes people complain about mostly disappear.
If you’re deciding whether to read the novels after finishing the show, know that the books give you the full career timeline and the original team names, while the show gives you more of his childhood and life in Russia. Read the books for the hockey history, watch the show for the emotional expansion, and know that the “plane crash” you keep seeing online is really an engine-failure scare that ends with the plane on the ground.
With Unrivaled confirmed for 2027, Ilya is about to get the spotlight the franchise has been building toward since he first showed up as Shane’s rival on the ice.
