Two weeks ago a Quinn Hughes cameo during Connor Storrie’s SNL debut may have delighted the Heated Rivalry fandom. Now it’s sparking outrage.
Though details about the 26-year-old Olympian’s reported appearance are slim, the idea of a cameo makes sense on the surface. This week’s Saturday Night Live host stars in Heated Rivalry as a bisexual hockey captain that falls in love with his professional rival (Hudson Williams) off the ice. Quinn Hughes is an actual NHL player who just won gold with Team USA at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan.
On February 28, fantasy will allegedly meet reality when Hughes joins Storrie at 30 Rockefeller Center, according to a report by The Athletic. Here’s why the news has upset so many Heated Rivalry fans.
What’s the background?
Heated Rivalry’s positive impact on hockey’s reputation is not up for debate. The NHL, which has zero out queer players and a complicated history with the LGBTQ+ community, saw a noticeable increase in interest since the show’s debut in late November 2025. Earlier this month NHL’s chief communications officer Jon Weinstein told Sports Illustrated that the league’s TikTok account experienced an 83% increase in followers, while the league saw an 114% increase in average new daily followers.
It’s also worth noting that the success of the show—which includes an episode set at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia—was so massive that Connor Storrie and his costar Hudson Williams were invited to help carry the Olympic torch for part of its journey from Olympia, Greece, to Milano Cortina.
Meanwhile, brothers Jack and Quinn Hughes’ road to the 2026 Olympics was paved with charming viral memes, Tate McRae dating rumors, and wholesome narratives about their mom’s accomplishments with the women’s team. Ellen Hughes works as a player development coach for Team USA’s women’s hockey team, which won gold against Team Canada in overtime two days before the men’s team won gold against the same country with the same final 2—1 score in overtime.
Team USA women’s hockey has medaled in eight consecutive Olympics since 1998, earning three gold medals total. The men’s team just secured their first gold medal since 1980. They hadn’t even medaled at the Olympics since winning silver in 2010. You couldn’t have asked for a more triumphant storybook ending…then Donald Trump got involved.
What happened after Team USA men’s hockey won gold?
Things took a turn when FBI director Kash Patel was seen partying with the men’s team after their victory (having attended the Olympics on taxpayers’ dime, of course). The next day, the men’s team accepted a congratulatory call from the president, who invited them to the White House for his State of the Union address, but not without taking a swipe at the women’s team.
“I must tell you, we’re going to have to bring the women’s team,” Trump said with a laugh. “You do know that. I do believe I probably would be impeached.”
The entire men’s team seemed to laugh right along with him, and all but five players attended Trump’s speech on February 24. The women’s team declined Trump’s invitation, but seem to be looking forward to a trip to Vegas being organized by Flavor Flav.
How did the Hughes brothers react to the initial backlash?
According to the Hughes brothers, the backlash to the phone call with Trump is unwarranted.
“People are so negative out there and they are just trying to find a reason to put people down and make something out of almost nothing,” Jack (who may join his brother on SNL) told The Daily Mail on February 23, explaining that his team became “tight” with the women’s team during the course of the 2026 Winter Olympics. “People are so negative about things. I think everyone in that locker room knows how much we support them, how proud we are of them and we know the same way we feel about them, they feel about us.”
He added that he was “excited” to attend the SOTU. “Everything is so political,” he said. “We’re athletes. We’re so proud to represent the US and when you get the chance to go to White House and meet the president—we’re proud to be Americans and that’s so patriotic.”
As for his brother, Quinn? “We’re really happy for them,” Quinn told Good Morning America of the women’s team. “[There’s] a lot going around on social media right now surrounding our team and their team, but in the last couple summers we did a lot of training with them and got to know a lot of those girls really well.”
Neither of them seem to grasp why many people are upset over the idea of the men’s team chumming it up with the women’s team in person only to laugh at them behind their backs. Nor the irony of calling yourself apolitical and wearing Trump merch.
This brings us back to Saturday Night Live.
It’s unclear what role Quinn Hughes will play on SNL, though one fan has a pretty good guess. Prior to the Trump controversy, Quinn went viral for his so-called “haunted” expression and one fan suspects this will lead to a sketch about “the ghost of a homoerotic hockey player that only Quinn can see.”
Many Heated Rivalry fans feel Hughes’ rumored appearance would sully Storrie’s Saturday Night Live debut, slamming the variety show for inviting a man who laughed at their fellow Olympians and posed for photos with a president who’s targeting the transgender community, has been found liable for sexual abuse, and was referenced more than 38,000 times in the Epstein files (that we know of), per the New York Times.
After hearing reports that Quinn Hughes would be appearing on the variety show during Storrie’s episode, the show’s fans began flooding SNL’s social media comments while sharing their displeasure on X.com and Threads.
Has anyone else weighed in?
So far NBC has not responded to the backlash over Hughes’s rumored appearance, nor has the hockey player himself said anything.
This post may be updated.
