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Ten Eleven Things We Just Can’t Get Enough Of From Shane Hollander & Ilya Rozanov’s Relationship Debut!
Kim Minju || People Magazine || August 3, 2021
This may be the year’s most unexpected romance! On July 30, 2021, the Ottawa Centaur’s Hockey Team social media posted an interview with Captain Ilya Rozanov and his new teammate, Shane Hollander. Shane’s trade from the Montreal Metros, where he had been captain and led the team to three Stanley Cups, had been buzzing in the hockey sphere already. While many expected the video to be about how Shane would help the team, instead the two revealed that not only had they been in a secret, on-and-off relationship for eleven years, but that they were also married!
The video has close to 23 million views only days later, and this author cannot stop watching either. Their affection, their competition - and their good looks - have all caught the attention of hockey fans and non alike! I have compiled the eleven things, one for each year they were a couple, that we can’t all get enough of!
- Familiar faces! While he only appears on screen twice, the interviews were conducted by Harris Drover, the Centaur’s Senior Director of Communications, and the boyfriend of Centaur’s player Troy Barrett! It has since been confirmed that in addition to his formal role, he is also a personal friend of the couple. They chose Harris over far more famous interviewers because they were most comfortable sharing this big secret with him first.
- Lost in translation! Even though he’s been playing in the US and Canada for ten years, there are still words that Ilya struggles with. Shane was careful to quietly correct his English on camera, but Ilya said he had no shame because it’s not his first language. And Shane confirmed he is learning Russian for Ilya!
- Ilya set up their first commercial! Ilya shared that he was invited to do a photo photoshoot for hockey equipment company CCM solo before their rookie seasons, but he suggested inviting Shane as well. Were sparks flying already? The couple did say they hung out for the first time that night!
- Also known as… During the interview, the couple didn’t talk much about how they kept their relationship secret, but one detail they did let slip was that Shane was saved as Jane in Ilya’s phone and Ilya was Lily in Shane’s phone! Not only were they essentially hiding in plain sight by choosing names so close to their real ones, but they were in contact out of the eyes of the public, which leads to number five…
- Sneaking around! While the couple might have danced around it, there’s no denying: more often than not, Ilya and Shane were engaged in some stress relief after all of those games and events they had together. Shane’s on-road roommate Hayden Pike admitted as much, saying, “he disappeared for hours” every time their team traveled to play Ilya’s in Boston. They kept it clean for the general audience, but we can all read between the lines!
- Broken family ties. The interview wasn’t all happy moments, as Shane talked about the challenges of being gay in the National Hockey League. The moment that really hurt viewers’ hearts, however, was when Ilya talked about his mother’s death, followed by his father’s passing, and his brother’s poor treatment of Ilya for being bisexual. The internet can’t get over how little support Ilya received in the years before he became involved with Shane, and how much he has now!
- Wear my name on your heart! Eagle-eyed viewers spotted that Ilya’s nameplate in their locker room now reads ‘CAPTAIN R-H’, and fans quickly rushed to the internet to squee about their favs sharing last names! The Centaurs Hockey Team confirmed in a series of tweets after the video that Ilya is now Rozanov-Hollander, while Shane is Hollander-Rozanov.
- Circle of Trust! Fans noted that many of the photos the couple shared from before their wedding included a small group of people they obviously trusted, including Shane’s family and Shane’s former teammate and best friend, Hayden Pike and his family. The couple even shared a photo of them spending time on a boat with Hayden’s children at Shane’s cottage!
- Still competitive! While the couple are going to be playing on the same team this year, they are still competitive about beating each other! During their interview, they teased about who won the most awards, who scored the most points, and who had the best hockey skills. They even forgot they were being interviewed in the middle of conversation to get in a little bit of 1-on-1 competition!
- Love all around! The many messages that the couple received in support, including almost all of the Centaur’s roster, Shane’s ex-girlfriend Rose Landry, many queer athletes across the sporting world, and many of the NHL organizations all give viewers hope that this couple will find acceptance after coming out.
- With friends like this! The best tweet has to go to Hayden Pike, who was both heartfelt in his feelings to Shane while refusing to use Ilya’s name in the message! He called Ilya “[Shane’s] husband, a guy on the Centaurs”, “Mr. Shane”, and “the Russian dude you live with”. The two are obviously close but fans couldn’t get enough of the teasing!
Man in the Crease Podcast Transcript
Excerpt from Pre-Season Review
September 17, 2021
[Starts at 46:23]
MACK: I know our chat and inboxes have been exploding with demands for us to address this last team on our list, Sully.
SULLY: We didn’t forget them.
MACK: We can’t count them out for sure.
SULLY: I’m not sure the last time we said that about the Centaurs. Have we ever said that about the Centaurs?
MACK: Nope. Well, maybe when Rozanov first arrived.
MACK: The 2021-2022 Ottawa Centaurs. What do we think?
SULLY: I don’t think we’ve ever seen such a stacked team in center in hockey since the Renegades in 2018, who took their cup run deep into the third round.
MACK: I have to disagree, I think the Wolves had some tremendous center depth in 2019-2020.
SULLY: They sure did until -
MACK: Midseason, yeah.
SULLY: Just a rotten string of injuries there.
MACK: Let’s recap if you’ve somehow missed the last few months of hockey news. In a move that surprised absolutely everyone, the Ottawa Centaurs announced in early July they had acquired Shane Hollander for what amounted to a song for a player of his standing.
SULLY: Which was a huge mystery to most everyone - why he was leaving the Metros dynasty he was building, why he was playing at a price point far below what he could have demanded -
MACK: Why he was coming to play with Ilya Rozanov, who he was always pitted against in the press -
SULLY: Well, we have that answer.
MACK: Correct. Hollander and Rozanov shared in July they’ve been been romantically involved for their entire careers, and that the press Hollander got for a trip in the last game he played for the Metros was going to be a harbinger of what it would be like each time he played against Rozanov in the future once their marriage was widely known.
SULLY: Do we know what they’re going to put on their jerseys?
MACK: I’ve heard they’re still going by Hollander and Rozanov.
SULLY: Such a relief for announcers everywhere.
MACK: I heard Rozanov wanted the full names but Hollander was far more level-headed.
SULLY: 6 syllable last names do not roll off the tongue.
MACK: Someone could score in the amount of time it would take to say Hollander-Rozanov passes to Rozanov-Hollander.
SULLY: So we’ve now got two of the highest stat leaders in the last ten years, and they have, what? Four cups, three Harts, five or so Art Rosses, three Conn Smiths, a Calder, a few international play gold medals…
MACK: First and second draftees of their class.
SULLY: Jesus, their joint trophy room must be unreal.
MACK: No one is touching the stats that Hollander and Rozanov put up in the last ten years collectively.
SULLY: But how are they going to play them? Does Wiebe shift one to winger, and the other stays on Center?
MACK: I think it’s more likely - I mean, listen. When you have players of this caliber on the team, two best-in-the-world players, you can afford to have a slightly weaker wing. So my assumption is they’re gonna break up that first line, send one of Rozanov’s wingers down to the second line with Hollander, or vice versa if Hollander plays first line.
SULLY: And they both play power play?
MACK: Oh yeah. You don’t leave your best guys on the bench.
SULLY: And what’s your prediction for who is first line?
MACK: Wiebe honors the years Rozanov has on the team. Hollander definitely edges Rozanov out for years as captain, and stats overall - I think he’s got something like fifty more points throughout the years cumulatively. But Rozanov stayed captain for a reason, so he stays on first line. He knows the guys the best. Or, maybe it’s gonna be a practice decision on game day. It’s really hard to tell.
SULLY: I am so curious how Wiebe will handle this, being such a young coach.
MACK: This is the stuff of fantasies for all coaches, sure.
SULLY: And we have to mention the two new additions.
MACK: The Centaurs have also acquired Shawn O’Brien and Mike Tyler. You can’t have this level of players without some muscle. Rozanov can hold his own, but Hollander is known for not wanting to fight.
SULLY: Didn’t Tyler flat out say he “knew what he was - ”
MACK: “What he was hired for,” yeah. He is the muscle. I expect to see him playing whatever line Hollander does.
SULLY: I know they’ve checked each other numerous times in their career, but those two watching someone else do it while on the same team -
MACK: I’m hopeful the league has had growth in acceptance, but we have to admit there might be some gunning for Rozanov and Hollander after this announcement.
SULLY: Wiebe better have an iron-clad plan for how to deal with two married teammates. Or a babysitter so one doesn’t go over the boards in defense of the other.
MACK: Amen.
First Husbands of Hockey at Home
Joshua Harper || ESPN Cover Story || August 2022
I MEET ILYA ROZANOV ON A sunny day in Ottawa in July 2022 in the driveway of the home he shares in-season with his husband, Shane Hollander. Technically, the two both have hyphenated, with their surname at birth listed first. But he just laughs when I call him Mr. Rozanov-Hollander.
“That’s too much. Call me Ilya.”
He warns me about their dog, Anya, before taking me in, sharing that they’ve learned to give visitors the option to opt out of a doggie welcome. I’m an animal guy, so I’m in. Ilya leads me into a wide foyer, whistles once, and I’m greeted by a squirmy, excited pup of medium build that wraps around my legs.
“He can’t think of training her out of her happiness,” a voice says from the kitchen, apologetic. Shane Hollander, the other human half of this household, wanders in in athletic shorts and a light sweatshirt, in socks and a manbun. He apologizes for not being prepared for the interview, having just returned home from a run. “I forgot to set my alarm,” he says with a wry grin. “And I can’t bear to not run first thing.”
“Obsessed,” Ilya whispers fondly.
As Shane excuses himself for a quick shower with a kiss on Rozanov’s shoulder as he slides by, Ilya offers me a glass of water and a seat at the counter of their kitchen. Anya sniffs at my feet a bit more and then goes to collapse in a lush doggy bed beside the French doors to the backyard. I’m quick to notice several battered cookbooks leaning against the fridge with titles in Russian. There’s a few glasses, a set of measuring spoons, and a bowl in the sink. A used cutting board with green remains and a knife sit on the island.
“I’d say sorry for not cleaning, but this is living, you know?” Ilya says when he notices me looking around.
“Do you like to cook?” I ask.
“We try to cook as much as possible in the off-season,” Ilya says, nodding. “It was our thing before, when we couldn’t go on dates.”
“And in season?”
Ilya shrugs. “Sometimes we cook. We have meals as a team, meals in the training center. Shane’s parents have us over for dinner at least once a week. There’s a meal service. It all changes.”
I nod to the artwork in the breakfast nook. “Is that the Stanley Cup?” There are two framed photos of a large gold circle, with handles on the side, shot from above. One is filled with what I think is soup, the other a salad.
He nods. “It’s Okroshka. I followed my grandmother’s recipe. She made it often in the summers when I stayed with her, in the off season, when I was young.”
“I’ve never heard of it,” I say honestly.
“Yes, well, I believe Shane wishes he never heard either. He hated it.”
“His was the salad?”
Ilya buzzes his lips in dismissal. “So boring.”
THE HOLLANDER-ROZANOV HOME is smaller than I expected for two athletes that have been playing on the international stage for eleven years, that have the kinds of contracts they do. It’s tastefully set back away from the street, but only seems to boast a few bedrooms and one enormous living area. It immediately feels familiar as a sports fan, and those who see photos of it might recognize their home from the season-ending party that appeared on many Centaur players’ social media.
Outside of the Stanley Cup photos in the kitchen, there’s little evidence two elite NHL hockey players, who just finished their collective best season in their careers, live here. There are knicknacks here and there, but mostly just throw blankets (Shane gets cold, Ilya tells me) and framed photos. Many photos - on the walls, two or three per end table, on the shelves beside the fireplace. Shane, who has returned to join us, sits next to Ilya on the massive couch in front of the window. He catches me looking at a framed image and smiles.
“For a really long time, we weren’t keeping any photos of ourselves together. We weren’t even taking photos to later delete. Ilya was a ghost in my personal life. Now I kind of like having that reminder that we’re out, together, all over.”
Speaking of memories, I ask if there’s a trophy room.
“Not here,” Shane says. “It’s at our summer house.”
“Plus, we don’t have enough room for the awards here,” Ilya adds.
I ask if they’ve gotten their miniature Stanley Cups from this year’s win. They shake their heads. This fall, they explain. I ask if they have room for them.
“At least three more,” Shane says. “Then we might not have enough room.”
“We’ll make room,” Ilya corrects. “It’s big house.”
I know they’d be at their other home if I hadn’t made arrangements to meet them, that they came down last night just for this. They politely refused to do interviews at “the cottage”, which reviews of a former documentary Shane’s participated in show is not actually a quaint home on a lake but a multi-million dollar mansion. But they’re careful to keep that space “just for them,” Ilya explained when solidifying plans the week before.
When asked, they explain that normally they’re up at the lake from the time the season is over until training camp in August. Friends come and visit - they just had Shane’s former teammate Hayden Pike’s family over for Canada Day - and they held one of their cup days at the cottage “just by themselves.”
“I don’t think many people do that,” Shane says with a laugh. “I could tell the handlers thought it was odd. But we got two in a row and that’s what we wanted to do.”
I ask what they did with the cup.
“Kayaked,” Ilya says with a smirk. “But we could only go where it was ten or less feet deep.”
Do they have pictures?
I’m handed Shane’s phone so I can see a snapshot of Shane and Ilya side-by-side in kayaks, Ilya’s a two-man with the Stanley Cup tied into the second seat. It has a life vest wrapped around it. The men aren’t even wearing shirts.
“It was probably the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever done,” Shane explains. “And the most joyous. We just laughed ourselves silly.”
“The handlers did not,” Ilya says.
I HAVEN’T JUST COME TO ASK about their real estate investments. They just finished their first year playing as teammates. They may remain the first and only active players to be in a relationship together in the National Hockey League, and the first and only couple to play on the same team in the league, forever. So I ask how it went.
“Amazing,” Shane says. He reaches over and links pinkies with Ilya. “I know everything had to happen in the order it did, that I would never in a million years have been able to join Ilya’s team while not a free agent because no organization in their right mind would have agreed to trade me to play with him against their team, but - ” he pauses, then smiles at Ilya. “I wish I could tell myself from a few years ago that it was going to be so good if you could just show a little patience.”
“Shane is not good at patience,” Ilya says, linking their hands.
“No,” Shane admits. “I’m terrible at it.”
“I am very happy. I hated leaving him in Montreal, and him leaving me here. The games - I liked them, they were fun, but they took us away from each other. I found - joy again, I think, this year,” Ilya says.
Shane leans his head against Ilya’s shoulder briefly in comfort.
“And how did you balance your competitiveness with your relationship?” I ask.
“Are you talking about Tampa Bay?” Shane asks directly.
”In part,” I say. Shane refers to the November 13, 2021 game where he and Ilya were caught on camera getting into a heated argument on the bench, which was rumored to spill into the locker room after the second period. The two did not visibly speak on the bench or ice for the remainder of the game, and the Centaurs organization was tight-lipped about the reasons why. Even though the Cens won, pundits had a field day, suggesting that it was evidence of how distracting a couple on a team might be, and the incident has followed them for the remainder of the season.
Ilya squeezes Shane’s hand. “We have competed for a long time. We would hit each other into the boards, steal the puck, talk trash and then meet up afterwards and be in love. We have agreement not to take what happens on the ice personally at home,” he explains.
“We both bounced between starting and second line this year. But look,” Shane says, pausing for a second and then continuing. “Ilya and I are both very, very competitive. We don’t want to lose ice time. I don’t think we’ve ever said anything untrue to each other in pursuit of that. If I had a sh–-ty game, he tells me. If he had a sh–-ty game, I tell him. Tampa Bay, I was playing really poorly. I was just not having an ‘on’ game. He was right as a captain to say I shouldn’t be on the power play. I just didn’t like that.”
“It was a disagreement with your teammate?”
“Yes,” Shane nods. “I didn’t say anything to him that I wouldn’t also say to [Centaur’s Assistant Captain] Bood either when I told Ilya what I thought. It didn’t get personal.”
“I knew when he joined my team that this all could happen, that we would not agree all the time. But he’s f—ing awesome as a player and worth it.”
Shane smiles and leans his head back on Ilya’s shoulder again. “Back atcha, babe.”
“What was it like balancing your relationship with the team's needs?”
“The room is very supportive,” Shane says. “We don’t talk a ton about our relationship in there, other than, ‘Ilya and I watched that movie last week’ or ‘We’re going to dinner with mom and dad later.’ We usually do adjoining rooms on the road so we can have our own space if we want. We try to make sure we aren’t glued at the hip because we are going from only summers and a few nights a month together to all of the time. That could be really unhealthy.”
“Happy husband, happy me,” Ilya adds.
IT’S TIME FOR ME TO GO and the Hollander-Rozanov’s are heading back to their summer home as well. While Ilya grabs their bag upstairs - and Shane calls after him three times to remember the phone chargers - Shane washes the dishes quickly and leaves them to dry. They’re back at the end of next week, he explains, for Ilya’s car commercial. Shane will spend the day with his parents.
Dishes done, he’s leaning against the counter, explaining Anya’s doggy daycare she visits during the season when Ilya arrives back in the kitchen. Without a word, he crosses his arms over Shane’s chest from behind, resting his head in the crook of Shane’s neck. Shane reaches up and scratches the top of his head before turning and giving his hair a kiss.
“We didn’t sleep very well last night,” Shane explains. “Sleeping in hotels is no big deal, but for some reason the first night away from the cottage is never restful.”
“Perhaps it’s the serenity you get there,” I suggest.
“We love it there,” Shane agrees. “Even when things were awful, it was our safe place.”
“Let’s go home,” Ilya suggests into Shane’s neck, and I raise a hand in farewell as I say goodbye. My last sight of the couple that has been under the microscope of the hockey world’s attention is their quiet moment together in their kitchen, wrapped up in each other, ready for more rest and relaxation before the next season begins.