Ilya Grigoryevich Rozanov () is a fictional character in Rachel Reid's sports romance novel series Game Changers (2018–2022) and its television adaptation Heated Rivalry (2025–present). He appears in all six published novels, serving as a main character in Heated Rivalry (2019) and The Long Game (2022), the second and sixth installments of the series, and as a supporting character in the fifth installment, Role Model (2021). He is also set to be the main character in the upcoming seventh installment, Unrivaled (2027). In the novels, Ilya is portrayed as a Russian professional ice hockey player and captain of fictional National Hockey League teams, known for his abrasive on-ice persona and reputation as a playboy. Privately, he struggles with clinical depression and a difficult family situation, and conceals his bisexuality and relationship with his league rival, Shane Hollander.
In 2025, the novel series was adapted for television, with Jacob Tierney serving as director, writer, and executive producer for Crave. In the adaptation, Ilya is portrayed by American actor Connor Storrie and reimagined as the captain of a Boston-based team in a fictional professional hockey league, with the series expanding upon his background and life in Russia. Storrie received critical acclaim for his performance, particularly for his command of the Russian language and accent as a non-native speaker.
Development and conception Reid has stated that Ilya was conceived while she was writing Game Changer (2018), when she became interested in the idea of a storyline involving a star player secretly involved with an antagonistic Russian rival. In early drafts, the character who would become Ilya had a different name. The concept ultimately developed into Heated Rivalry. Reid told PinkNews that, "in the early drafts of Heated Rivalry, Ilya was much more of a jerk. I think he was much meaner ... And I think he was maybe more of a stereotypical bad boy, I guess. And then I softened him a bit as I went back and wrote more."
Reid drew inspiration from the real-life rivalry between Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin for the novel. In the novel's afterword, she credited HBO's reality television series 24/7, which had followed the 2011 NHL Winter Classic between Ovechkin's Washington Capitals and Crosby's Pittsburgh Penguins. She further cited Jaromír Jágr, Teemu Selänne, and Ilya Kovalchuk as inspirations for the character of Ilya. Additionally, she credited Mikhail Sergachev as the biggest influence on his speech patterns. However, she noted: "I never directly base my characters on any real people ... I was also inspired by other sports rivalries, by other fictional stories, and by my love of the enemies-to-lovers and forbidden romance tropes."
Furthermore, the rivalry between the fictional NHL teams of Shane Hollander and Ilya, the Montreal Voyageurs and the Boston Bears, respectively, is inspired by the real-life Bruins–Canadiens rivalry between the Montreal Canadiens and the Boston Bruins. Reid herself is a lifelong Canadiens fan, while her father is a Bruins fan.
Fictional character biography Ilya Grigoryevich Rozanov was born on 15 June 1991 in Moscow, in what were then the final months of the Soviet Union. His father, Grigori, was a police officer who worked at the Ministry of Internal Affairs. His mother, Irina, was in her 20s when she gave birth to Ilya, while Grigori was about 50. He was their second child, after his brother Andrei, who is four years older and is also a police officer.
Ilya's hockey position is centre. He was drafted first overall by the Boston Bears at the 2009 NHL entry draft. After joining the team, he helps them reach the 2012 Stanley Cup playoffs in his second NHL season, where they are eliminated by their rivals Montreal Voyageurs. He captains Russia at the 2014 Winter Olympics, although the team underperforms. He helps Boston win the 2014 Stanley Cup, and wins that year's MVP award, for which he was first nominated in 2012. In July 2018, he left the Boston Bears and signed with the Ottawa Centaurs. He helps the team reach the 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs after over a decade.
For much of his professional career, Ilya was at the center of a highly publicized rivalry with Canadian player Shane Hollander, which began during their junior careers and was already prominent by the 2009 World Junior Championships. It intensified shortly thereafter, when Ilya was drafted by Boston and Shane by their rivals Montreal. The rivalry continued until November 2018, when the two publicly announced their friendship, and effectively concluded in March 2021, when their romantic relationship became public.
Family history Grigori was abusive toward Irina; Ilya stated that Grigori "hated her" and believed she had been cheating on him and planned to leave him. She was the only family member with whom Ilya was close. She supported his hockey career, and he enjoyed playing the sport for her. However, when Ilya was 12 years old (in 2003 or 2004), Irina, who had clinical depression, died by suicide from an overdose of medication, and Ilya found her body. The nature of her death remained secret, and Grigori unsuccessfully attempted to convince Ilya that it had been accidental. It remained a secret until November 2018, when Ilya publicly revealed it at a press conference about the founding of the Irina Foundation, aimed at raising money and awareness for suicide prevention organizations. Following Irina's death, Grigori married a younger woman named Polina. Grigori did not follow Ilya's NHL career, as he considered the league inferior to the Kontinental Hockey League. Ilya and Andrei did not maintain a close relationship; Andrei, as well as Polina, only contact Ilya to ask for money. As of July 2014, Andrei and Polina ignored Ilya's suspicions of Grigori's Alzheimer's disease. By January 2017, the disease had drastically progressed, and Grigori died in March 2017. During his battle with the disease, Ilya paid for his treatment. After Grigori's funeral, Ilya gifted his Moscow condo to Andrei, cut ties with his remaining family, and did not return to Russia thereafter.
Physical appearance and personality Ilya has been described as physically attractive, and in October 2016 was listed fifth in Cosmopolitan ranking of the "Hottest Men in the NHL". He is said to be tall, with golden skin, light brown curly hair, hazel eyes, and dark, thick eyebrows. He has a strong jaw and a cleft chin covered in stubble. His smile is described as lopsided and lazy, and his teeth as unnaturally white because most of them are not real. His nose is crooked from having been broken several times. He has a long neck, a muscular chest covered in dark brown hair, broad shoulders, a tapered waist, muscular buttocks, a dark brown happy trail, and thick thighs, and is uncircumcised. He has a snarling grizzly bear tattoo on his left pectoral muscle, which he obtained as a Russian Bear emblem before being drafted by the Boston Bears. In May 2020, he obtains a loon tattoo on his left arm near his shoulder. He also wears a golden crucifix pendant around his neck, which he never removes and which belonged to Irina.
Ilya is known for his abrasive on-ice persona and cockiness, and has been described as "flashy" and "loud". Despite this reputation, he is also portrayed as highly perceptive and humorous, and is noted for his rapport with children. He openly supports LGBTQ+ rights, even prior to publicly coming out, as well as mental health initiatives and various charitable causes. Although he has a reputation as a playboy, he is described as treating women with respect. Privately, Ilya fears inheriting Alzheimer's disease and clinical depression from his parents, and he is diagnosed with the latter in December 2020, after which he begins taking antidepressants at some point before October 2021. He expresses belief in God, although he no longer attends Divine Liturgy, and he also believes in souls and has vague ideas about the afterlife. He has been a smoker since his teenage years, and has been unable to quit despite multiple attempts. He previously owned a collection of European sports cars, most of which he had sold by the time he relocated from Boston to Ottawa.
Sexuality and relationships Ilya lost his virginity at the age of 14. His early sexual encounters were exclusively with girls, and he later became aware of his attraction to boys as well. Despite growing up in a homophobic environment, he has always been secure in his bisexuality, which he describes as contributing to a sense of personal development, stating that being attracted to men as well as women made him feel "evolved". He treated sex, as well as hockey following Irina's death, as an escape from his harsh reality. One of his earliest experiences with men involved the son of one of his Russian coaches. At the age of 17, he slept with a teammate's girlfriend. At another point, he also slept with Andrei's girlfriend and a teammate's sister. Around 2014, Ilya met Svetlana Vetrova, who worked at a Lamborghini dealership in Boston. The daughter of Boston's Russian former star player Sergei Vetrov and an avid hockey fan, Svetlana became his friend with benefits. Until some time before November 2016, he also regularly slept with an unnamed woman from New York. Around January 2017, he slept with a woman named Hayley.
In July 2010, Ilya has his first sexual encounter with Shane, when they fellate each other. In February 2011, they engage in anal sex for the first time in a Montreal hotel room. These encounters initiate a years-long secret sexual arrangement during which Ilya develops romantic feelings for Shane. In January 2017, after the All-Star Game, Shane confesses his feelings to Ilya and indirectly expresses his desire for a committed relationship. In March 2017, while in Moscow for his father's funeral, Ilya confesses his love to Shane in Russian during a phone call, but Shane does not understand. Shane invites Ilya to his Ontario cottage, which Ilya accepts three months later. In July 2017, at the cottage, they confess their love and begin a committed relationship. A limited number of individuals are aware of their relationship: Shane's parents learn of it in July 2017, Shane's former girlfriend Rose Landry knows by November 2018, Shane's best friend and teammate Hayden Pike and his wife Jackie learn in November 2018, Ilya's former teammate Ryan Price learns in July 2019, Shane and Ilya's agent Farah Jalali and Price's boyfriend Fabian Salah are informed in July 2020, Ilya's psychologist Dr. Galina Molchalina is told in December 2020, Svetlana Vetrova in February 2021, and Ilya's teammate Troy Barrett in March 2021. In January 2021, Shane proposes to Ilya, who accepts. Two months later, their relationship becomes publicly known. In May 2021, they publicly announce their engagement, and they marry in July 2021.
Despite the longevity of their on-and-off relationship, Ilya and Shane maintain an active sexual relationship. This includes Shane performing a self-pleasuring display for Ilya to watch from an armchair, Ilya fellating Shane while he is on the phone with Hayden, Shane edging himself for Ilya via FaceTime, Shane driving from Montreal to Ottawa wearing a butt plug, Ilya forcing Shane to watch himself in the mirror during sex, Ilya fingering Shane while speaking with his friend Cliff Marlow through a closed door, and Ilya praising Shane during sex in Shane's trophy room. Within their sexual dynamic, Ilya is exclusively the top and Shane the bottom. Although they almost exclusively practice safe sex by November 2018, by October 2020 they rarely do so. They nevertheless remain sexually exclusive. Shane maintains a strict rule against threesomes, and a suggestion by Ilya that they open their relationship to allow Shane additional experiences with men results in a dispute during which they do not speak for three days.
In the novels Game Changer