The casting announcements for Season 2 of “Heated Rivalry” just keep on coming, this time with the addition of Milla Jovovich, Kevin Zegers and Paul Gross to the roster. 

Jovovich is set to play Dr. Galina Molchalina, Ilya Rozanov’s (Connor Storrie) therapist in the book “The Long Game,” one of the source novels for the season. The novel is the sixth in Rachel Reid’s “Game Changers” series of hockey romance books and the second to focus on Ilya and Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) after the former’s move to play for the Ottawa Centaurs and how they navigate a more serious relationship all while trying to avoid it becoming public. 

Zegers will play Coach Wiebe, the head coach of the Ottawa Centaurs, the team Ilya requests a trade to in the season. And Gross plays Roger Crowell, commissioner of Major League Hockey, or the equivalent of the National Hockey League in the series. 

If casting is anything to go by, Season 2 of “Heated Rivalry” will also contain elements of at least two other books. Last week, the show announced Daniel Diemer and Shaheen Jafargholi will portray Ryan Price and Fabian Salah from Book 3, “Tough Guy.” New cast members from that story line also include Emily Hampshire, Priyanka, Edvin Ryding, Robert Naylor and Sabrina Jalees.

In “Tough Guy,” Ryan is a larger-than-life hockey enforcer, a shy, quiet player who reluctantly fights his opponents on the ice and has lost his love for the game. Fabian is a musician in Toronto who’s trying to grow his career and has a strong friend group. 

When Ryan is traded to play in Toronto, the two reunite after years apart—they knew each other as teenagers and secretly had feelings for each other. 

The show also cast Justice Smith and Charlie Gillespie as Harris Drover and Troy Barrett from Book 5, “Role Model.” In this book, Ilya becomes captain of the Centaurs and helps Troy—also recently traded—become more comfortable with his new team while separating himself from a toxic past and learning more about himself in the process. In Ottawa, he realizes he has feelings for Harris, the team’s social media manager who grew up on a nearby farm. 

Returning cast members from Season 1 include Sophie Nelisse as Rose Landry, Ksenia Daniela Kharlamova as Svetlana Vetrova, Francois Arnaud as Scott Hunter, Robbie G.K. as Kip Grady, Christina Chang as Yuna Hollander, Dylan Walsh as David Hollander, Callan Potter as Hayden Pike, Benjamin Roy as JJ Dagenais and Kamilla Kowal as Jackie Pike. 

About the writer

Danielle Haynes is the co-founder and co-editor of Booked & Screened, covering book-to-screen adaptations, film and TV development. She’s read all the “Game Changers” books, and while she has some concerns about some of the casting, she’s pretty confident the characters are in good hands.