Updated

Charlie Gillespie has been cast as Troy Barrett, an Ottawa Centaurs forward from the book Role Model, in the second season of Heated Rivalry. Just Jared reported the casting, which the article says was announced, and the 28-year-old actor, known for Julie and the Phantoms, spoke about it while promoting his Tubi movie Sidelined 3: End Game. In the book, Troy joins the Centaurs with Ilya Rozanov after being traded from the Toronto Guardians, and he starts dating the team's social media manager, Harris Drover, played by Justice Smith. Gillespie said he had played hockey since childhood and that he had wanted to be on the show, which he knew was popular because people kept telling him he should be on it. He said the show feels close to home because its author, Rachel Reid, is from Nova Scotia, a short drive from where he grew up in Canada, and he described seeing East Coast names on jerseys on the locker room set. He had previously played a high school hockey enforcer in the indie drama Shattered Ice, filmed in 2024.