Michael Kutryk had a perfectly reasonable plan for his lakeside cottage: use it as a private retreat, escape from the world, and presumably enjoy some peace and quiet. Then Heated Rivalry turned it into one of the most recognizable pieces of queer real estate on television.
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Now, with season two on the way, the Toronto doctor has revealed that he had to do “a little bit of soul searching about allowing them to come back” before letting production return to the home made famous as Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov’s romantic hideaway.
For a man who built the place specifically to get away from the world, discovering that the world suddenly has very strong feelings about your cottage is, frankly, a lot to process.
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It Started With a Table and a Very Small Budget
When Heated Rivalry first came knocking, Kutryk said the production was working with a “very small budget.” He agreed to “almost nothing” to let the series film at the lakefront property with “a crew of 45.”
That sounds like a fairly innocent arrangement until you remember what happened next: the little hockey romance became a global queer phenomenon, and suddenly the cottage was no longer just a cottage.
Kutryk recalled that the negotiations changed considerably when production returned with a rather different question.
“When they called, they said, ‘How much do you want?’ First, I told them they scratched my table, then I named a very reasonable price. They were shocked and appreciative. I actually didn’t even get them to replace my table,” he said.
There is something wonderfully Canadian about negotiating the fate of a globally famous gay romance location by first bringing up a scratched table. And before anyone imagines Kutryk knowingly signing up to become the proprietor of Gay Hockey Cottage from day one, there was another detail he had to discover for himself.
A producer explained that the show was based on Rachel Reid’s novel about hockey, so Kutryk listened to the audiobook. That was when things apparently got considerably more interesting.
“My jaw just dropped as I listened. The pretty explicit nature of the book made me wonder just what they’d be filming… and showing!” he said.
A reasonable question, especially when you have just agreed to let a television crew into your private home.
Welcome to the Most Famous Cottage in Queer Hockey
For Heated Rivalry fans, the cottage became much more than a convenient filming location.
The home appeared in the season one finale, “The Cottage,” where Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) invites Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie) to stay for two weeks.
What follows is approximately what happens when you put two secretly-in-love hockey players in a beautiful private cottage and give them enough time to actually deal with their feelings: they grow closer, their relationship reaches another level, and eventually Shane’s parents find out after his father accidentally catches them together.
In other words, the cottage got romance, intimacy, emotional revelations and an extremely awkward parental discovery.
That is a lot of plot for a building whose original purpose was apparently to provide its owner with some peace and quiet.
Then the Fans Arrived
Once Heated Rivalry became a global hit after its December 2025 release, Kutryk discovered that the cottage’s new celebrity status came with some very real-world consequences.
He began receiving calls from Airbnb about renting out the property and eventually agreed to rent it from spring into autumn after receiving “an offer too good to refuse”. And suddenly, a private lakeside retreat had become something fans could potentially book.
I miss the cottage 😭
New video of Connor Storrie on the set of Heated Rivalry! pic.twitter.com/1k0J051b7f
— Connor Storrie Updates (@connorstupdates) May 18, 2026
There is, of course, a special kind of chaos involved in renting out a home that viewers already associate with one of television’s most beloved queer couples. For fans, it is a piece of Heated Rivalry history. For Kutryk, it is still his actual house.
That distinction seems increasingly important as season two approaches.
The Cottage Owner Is Not Sure He Wants to Be a Tourist Attraction
Kutryk has admitted he is still unsure whether he will continue renting the property after season two airs because he’s “a private guy”.
He added: “This is my retreat. I built this to get away from the world, so I don’t know how much longer I’ll continue to share it.”
Which is perhaps the most understandable plot twist of all.
Imagine building your dream escape from civilization only for civilization to discover it, fall in love with it, analyze every corner of it and potentially start planning its next vacation there.
The cottage may belong to Kutryk, but in the minds of Heated Rivalry fans, it has become permanently associated with Shane and Ilya. Once a location becomes emotionally important to a fandom, apparently even the furniture gets lore. And poor Kutryk still has to live with the table.
Season Two Is Bringing Even More Chaos
Heated Rivalry season two is set for a spring 2027 release, with production starting in Canada earlier this month. The past few weeks have already delivered a steady stream of casting updates, with actors taking on several key roles being confirmed.
So while fans prepare themselves for more hockey, more romance and presumably more opportunities to lose their collective minds, Kutryk has a rather different question to consider: how much of his private retreat does he actually want to share with the world?
Because the success of Heated Rivalry has turned his cottage into something no one could have predicted when a small-budget production first showed up with a crew of 45. For the fans, it is Shane and Ilya’s cottage. For Kutryk, it is home.
And after accidentally becoming one of the hottest queer destinations in television, he may reasonably decide that sometimes a man simply wants his lake, his privacy and, ideally, an unmolested table.
Source: HGTV