Clarkson replied.  “I always have to remind people, it’s 2026, so we’ve got to let some shit go.”

 

Arnaud’s daytime assertion is correct: As of 2026, the NHL remains the only major men’s sports league without any out gay players in its over 100-year history.  

 

Brock McGillis, a former professional hockey player who came out as gay after his sports career ended, launched a tour of youth hockey leagues and sports organizations in 2024, hoping to counteract homophobia in the sport. “When we humanize the issue, people become more receptive to shifting their environment and engaging in the conversation,” McGillis told Outsports at the time. “They don’t understand my lived experiences without sharing my journey. How can we expect them to?” A major topic of McGillis’s tour was locker room talk, which he said “tells gay athletes they wouldn’t be accepted.”

The NHL even banned players from wearing LGBTQ+ pride-themed jerseys as recently as 2023.

Heated Rivalry  has put the sport’s particular strain of homophobia under more intense scrutiny. The Canadian Crave original, which airs on HBO Max in the States, has even led some closeted pro athletes, from all sports, to send DMs to author Rachel Reid, who penned the books from which the series is adapted, and the show’s star Hudson Williams.  “They’re reaching out to Rachel [Reid], our author, who will then kind of relay these lovely emails,” Williams said while appearing on Andy Cohen Live. “Sometimes they’re just reaching out privately through Instagram, and those are the ones that really just kind of hit you and go, ‘Oh, so this is a fun show, and it’s celebratory, but also, sometimes it’s just hitting people right in the nerves.”