Connor Storrie has officially made his Saturday Night Live debut.
The 26-year-old actor was absent from the Trump-centric cold open, entering onto the stage for his monologue to loud cheers.
“Now, some of you may have seen all of me on my show Heated Rivalry,” he joked to the audience. “It’s a show that’s taught a lot people about hockey, and it’s taught a lot of straight women that their sexuality is actually gay men.”
Storrie, who admitted to crying when he booked the show, lamented on the fact he was born to be there before joking that he wasn’t sure he pulled off the hockey portion of Heated Rivalry. He then brought out Quinn and Jack Hughes from the U.S. men’s hockey team and Hilary Knight and Megan Keller from the U.S. women’s hockey team.
The men said they haven’t seen the show, before the women assured Storrie they’d seen it. The monologue didn’t shy away from taking a dig at the video that showed the men’s hockey team laughing along with President Trump as he told them that the women’s team would have to join the men’s team at the White House.
“It was going to be just us, but we thought we’d invite the guys too” and “we thought we’d give them a little moment to shine” were the highlights from Knight and Keller, along with the reminder that the last time the men’s team won was over 40 years ago, while the last time the women won was two Olympics ago. The monologue ended with everyone looking cheery together.
Storrie’s Heated Rivalry co-star Hudson Williams made a surprise appearance during a sketch taking place on the 30 Rock skating rink. The internet had been speculating throughout the week if the 25-year-old Canadian actor would join his onscreen beau for a guest appearance.
The sketch found a couple hashing through a rejected proposal. Storrie, alongside the SNL cast members, in the sketch yelled about someone finally showing up. Williams then slid onto the ice and into Storrie, met with huge cheers from the audience. The actor also lated joined Storrie in announcing musical guest Mumford & Sons together.
The pair have repeatedly spoken about how close the experience of making Heated Rivalry has made them. “I have one of my best friends for life right beside me through it all, which is already a luxury that a lot of actors don’t get,” Williams previously told The Hollywood Reporter. “I’m sure I would’ve probably had a smaller appetite for the amount of stuff we’re doing if I didn’t have him through this.”
SNL went all in on Storrie leading up to Saturday’s show, which featured Mumford & Sons as the musical guest. The sketch comedy series released its typical two teasers — the first showing Storrie partaking in an “accent duel” and the second showing him “making out” with cast member Sarah Sherman and Mumford & Sons. The show also released a charming blooper reel of the actor’s first teaser.
Storrie’s SNL debut comes just months after his breakout role in the queer hockey drama, Heated Rivalry. Hailing from Canadian streamer Crave and airing on HBO Max in the U.S., the series centers on a fictional hockey universe based on popular romance books by Rachel Reid. Letterkenny alum Jacob Tierney created, wrote and directed the series.
Heated Rivalry focuses on two rival professional players — Canada-born Shane Hollander (Williams) of the fictitious Montreal Metros and Russia-born Ilya Rozanov (Storrie) of the fictitious Boston Raiders — as they navigate a near-decade-long situationship-turned-relationship. The show has made certified stars out of both Storrie and Williams.
The pair began last month presenting at the Golden Globes and closed the month serving as torchbearers in the 2026 Olympic Torch Relay. Storrie’s seemingly already found his first post-Heated Rivalry role; he’s in talks to join the ensemble cast of Molly Gordon and SNL writer Allie Levitan’s A24 comedy Peaked. Williams has also found his next role, re-teaming with Crave for the Carrie-Anne Moss-led series, Yaga.
Crave renewed Heated Rivalry for a second season early into the show’s first season run. HBO Max has confirmed it will continue to air the series. The show is slated to shoot the second season this summer — Tierney said it would shoot in August on a recent TV appearance. It’s aiming for a spring 2027 release, Bell Media and Crave told THR in a statement.
Reid announced earlier this year that she’ll be publishing her seventh book in the Game Changers series, which Heated Rivalry and its sequel The Long Game belong to. The book, Unrivaled, will be the next chapter in Shane and Ilya’s story. She announced earlier this week that she’d be pushing the book to a 2027 release date.
Ryan Gosling will host next week’s episode of SNL, where he’ll be joined by musical guest Gorillaz. And on March 14, Harry Styles will pull double duty as host and musical guest.