Jonah De Simone’s love of hockey has taken him places.
Now a third-year accounting student at the University of Guelph, he played right wing with the school’s Gryphons team and was with the Niagara Ice Dogs of the Ontario Hockey League.
Now, he’s got a film credit — as a body double in the hit hockey drama Heated Rivalry.
“It was a surreal experience,” De Simone said in an interview at the university’s Gryphon Centre Arena. “I hope I really get to do more of this for sure.”
The six-episode, Canadian-made TV series on Crave is a fictional account of the secret romance between two male hockey stars who are fearful of coming out.
This Guelph hockey player was Hudson Williams’ body double on Heated Rivalry
During filming last summer, De Simone doubled for Canadian actor Hudson Williams, who plays Shane Hollander, one of the main characters in the show along with Ilya Rozanov (American actor Connor Storrie).
De Simone said that while filming, they had no idea the series would become such a big hit and garner worldwide attention.
“It was really surprising how big the show’s gotten,” he said. “I remember when we were working on it, I really wanted to help out the hockey side as much as I could. Even realizing it might not be a key part of the show, I still wanted to kind of put my best foot forward.”
Aside from skating for Williams during filming, De Simone said he worked with the B.C.-born actor to teach him typical hockey mannerisms, including a stretch on all fours that Williams shared with the world on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
De Simone said he scored his chance to work on set because his cousin, Sam Willetts, was already a park of the Heated Rivalry production crew as a lighting technician.
“That was a super cool connection for me. And it just so happened that actually a couple of months later, he tragically passed away,” he said.
He also said director Jacob Tierney honoured De Simone’s cousin in the credits, “which is really special for me and my family.”
That isn’t the only family connection: De Simone’s mom plays an extra in the fifth episode.
“It was a pretty cool connection for our family to have my mom in the stands, me on the ice and and my cousin actually working as a lighting technician on the show as well.”
De Simone said he’s looking forward to whatever’s next and has indicated he’d be happy to return to serve as Williams’s body double in the already announced second season.
“I’ve expressed interest and got along well with production, so I’m hoping to get the call whenever they figure everything out that they need to.
“I’m excited at the potential of helping out again!”
The Guelph university team’s head men’s hockey coach, Josh Dixon, was also in Heated Rivalry. He was hired as an on-set hockey consultant, then recruited to play Team Canada’s coach in the first episode.
In a media release from the university, Dixon said people in hockey are “always looking to grow the game” to new fans.
“To raise awareness for the LGBTQ2IA community who exists in hockey is great. It’s been impressive how wide ranging the show’s impact has been. The number of times you hear the show referenced, people are watching and paying attention,” Dixon said.
“The more fandom that’s out there around hockey, the better.”
All the on-ice and locker-room scenes in Heated Rivalry were filmed at Guelph’s Sleeman Centre.
Alex Jaworiwsky, the southern Ontario city’s manager of tourism and destination development, told CBC News they’re excited to see Heated Rivalry coming to Guelph, and she hopes they’ll also become fans of the city.
“There’s a lot of community excitement around seeing Guelph and the Sleeman Centre on Heated Rivalry and on a hit Crave TV show,” she said.
“We know that we have seen a couple hundred people out front taking selfies over the last few weeks. We’re seeing more people come to public skates.”
She added they know some people have even attended games featuring the major-junior team the Guelph Storm because of the TV show.
Heated Rivalry, based on the Game Changers book series by Canadian author Rachel Reid, focuses on two rival hockey players who develop feelings for each other, complicating their professional lives.
Crave says Heated Rivalry became its most-watched original series debut within the first week of its release and two episodes are ranked in the 15 episodes of TV of all time on IMDb.
A second season also got the green light last month. Williams and Storrie were also presenters at the Golden Globes awards ceremony earlier this month they were named Olympic torch bearers for the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Games.
