The Ottawa Senators are selling Heated Rivalry-inspired jerseys, with the proceeds going to Ottawa Pride Hockey, a queer- and trans-inclusive hockey league.

Ottawa Pride Hockey was founded in 2020 after Kat and Alex took part in a friendly competition against a queer league in Boston.

“It was the first time the two teams had played together,” Kat tells Now Toronto.

“But for the first time in all our lives, there was no anxiety about being in the changeroom or in the rink. There was no weight on our shoulders; we could completely be ourselves.”

When the duo returned to Ottawa, they founded Ottawa Pride Hockey (OPH) in hopes to recreate that safe space for other non-binary players. White Kat has had “no bad experiences” playing the sport for 40 years, they say many face a different trajectory.

“[A lot of non-binary players] left the sport for reasons of homophobia in the changeroom, the toxic environment,” Kat says. “And a lot of people never felt that they could play hockey because it was never a safe space for them.”

Hockey has long been considered a male-dominated sport laden with toxic masculinity. Allegations of sexual assault over the decades only added to the the sport’s unfavourable reputation.

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When Heated Rivalry was first released, no one had expected the series would become a global sensation.

“Initially we all thought it would just be our small queer hockey community that would watch it,” Kat says. “None of us expected it to blow up like this.”

The show – released in November 2025 – is the most-watched original series ever on Crave and has surpassed 600 million minutes watched in the U.S.

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Based on Canadian author Rachel Reid’s book series “Game Changers,” the steamy fiction follows the on-ice rivalry and off-ice romance of Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov – two professional hockey players.

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Many scenes in the six-episode first season were filmed in Toronto, Guelph and Hamilton. For the second season, the show is expected to head to a different Ontario city.

“With the news that season two of Heated Rivalry would be set in Ottawa, the Ottawa Senators Hockey Club saw an opportunity to have some fun, respond to our fans and do some good for the community,” Peter Shier, the vice president of the team’s marketing, wrote in a LinkedIn statement.

“We decided to allocate the proceeds from each sale to OPH, a long time friend of the Sens.”

The team’s official shop released three different versions of jerseys with Hollander and Rozanov’s names on the back. 

“We’ve worked closely with Ottawa Pride Hockey over the past two seasons,” Ian Mendes, vice president of communications with the Ottawa Senators, tells Now Toronto.

“As you can imagine, it’s all moving very fast … We’re just at the point where this has been live for about 72 hours or so. Once we have some final numbers of sales, etc. we’ll be reaching out to OPH with an update,” he says.

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With the overwhelming support from allies in recent months, Kat says they remain cautiously optimistic.

“We’re hopefully going to shift the conversations away from it being a fun, sexy show to the real issue at hand, which is these two guys that can’t come out and the whole hockey environment,” Kat says.

“When you can bring your whole self to your sport, your work, whatever you’re doing, you’re going to perform better, you’re going to be happier, you’re going to be a better person all around.”

While OPH does not have a concrete plan as to where the donation will be directed, Kat says they have trust in their partner in the endeavour.

“Everything is still up in the air, but we’ve been building a relationship with the Sens, so we trust that management. It’s going in the right direction,” they say.

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The jerseys are available for purchase online at the Ottawa Team Shop and retail for $325+tax.