ok ramblers, let's get rambling.

So, this is a...maybe? Kind of situation.

In teasing contexts, I can see Ilya bringing up his draft positions? Especially because I can picture Shane actually getting a little annoyed by it and I think Ilya loves pissing people off, including the love of his life lmao.

I can even see it being one of the arguments people potentially bring up when debating who's been between the two of them. When they seem as close as they are in skill, you try to take what you can in arguments between fans. (I can already hear it: "Hollander has three cups! Rozanov only has one!" "Hockey is a team sport you dumbass. Rozanov can't win a cup by himself, his GM didn't build a good enough team!")

Wrt Boston picking Ilya over Shane...so, in general, the advice for top 3 picks is that you go with the best player available (BPA). You don't get picky there lol. But in a world like HR where it seems like both Shane and Ilya are generational players and so neck in neck, I can see the teams picking based off better fit? But I can also see Boston straight up deciding Ilya is better than Shane? It's a lil bit of column A and a little bit of column B.

"would anyone rly care about the placement after the first year" brother you would be shocked about the things hockey fans will hold on to.

In conclusion:

I can see Ilya bringing it up in a tongue and cheek way because despite it all, and despite the fact that I think Shane genuinely loves to play in Montreal, I think a little part of Shane is still a tiiiiny bit prickly (but not enough for it to be a real soft spot)

I can see fans bringing it up in arguments of Rozanov vs Hollander, but still that would be secondary and never a primary argument for who's better.

I can see Ilya bring a first overall pick could probably be used as part of a list of his accomplishments when doing something like giving a career award or retiring his jersey or inducting him into the HOF. "Ilya Rozanov, former first overall pick, Stanley Cup winner, 3 time Rocket Richard trophy winner, Hart trophy winner" etc etc.

hello, i'm happy to explain my thoughts on this!

well the answer is that they can't actually stop him. if shane decides he's done, then they cant make him sign.

but if he wants to stay, they'll do whatever he asks and they'll do what they need to to get rid of the "locker room problems"

so, when you say "management can't replace the entire team" they can and they will. because they wouldn't have to replace the whole team, they'd have to replace the worst offenders.

because, to touch on what you said about assuming the whole team is super homophobic. what im gonna say is that that's assuming heavily. are they homophobic? maybe? a bunch of them probably would be, but they're not going to be homophobic violently or obviously and vocally.

and that would mean being weird and squirmy about the gay thing but normal about the shane thing. "well, that's shane. holly. hollywood. our captain" and he's different, he just is!!

and there would be enough of those to make up for all the guys willing to make a scene. you have to realize, hockey players fear rocking the boat more than anything. their guys may be terrible guys off ice or they may be guys they disagree with, but as long as they dont bring that into the room and don't mess with team chemistry too much and are helping them win, they'll deal with it.

and by deal with it, i dont mean "just wont be vocally homophobic but otherwise will be mean and icy to shane." i mean they'd just pretend to forget and never bring it up.

if the loudest, most vocal offenders leave, then that makes most of the other homophobes just Deal With It. and the other guys who are just neutral can go to being normal.

i know that doesn't sound ideal, but imo it's the best someone can hope for unless they wanna go full gay avengers ala the cens. which is insane. (and can i be real? i think shane would take 'not ideal but best he can hope for while being on a winning team' over 'gay avengers but being a losing team')

and then, with shane being out not only as gay but Gay With Ilya Rozanov, and maybe getting a little bit less They Know, They'll Always Know, They Can Look At Me And Tell, he can probably start being a little bit more "hey guys, don't use slurs in my fucking locker room," and the leadership guys follow the lead or they lose their A. which, assuming the As on that team are jj and hayden, wont need to happen.

so, between the captain and the assistant captains, the non-captain or alternate captain leadership group (who is fluid by nature and can again be pruned down if they fall in line), the culture changes.

now. again, im not saying its gonna be Super Woke, but by nature of things, you either get with the program or you get traded. it is what it is.

and why is it what it is? because shane fucking hollander sets the tone. he's the central figure of that team, of that locker room. he's a superstar.

shane is god in that city. he's a hero to that organization. and he's a fucking winner. he brought home three fucking cups.

they'd get rid of anyone that shane asked them to, if it meant keeping him. and if meant keeping him off a divisional rival team AND keeping him, then they'd suck his dick too, while they were at it.

Oh the confusion of being lovingly kissed on the shoulder by your situationship from hell

"The wilderness that is our daughter"

These men, who brought me here today, do not fear me. They brought me here today because they fear you and because they know that my voice, the voice that refuses to be enslaved, once lived in you. And may yet still. They brought me here today to show you death and use it to frighten you into ignoring that voice. But know this. We are many. They are a few. To face death is a choice. And they can't hang us all. Get on with it, mother fucker.

I don't deserve you. Yes, you do.

The obvious problem is of course that when you bring real world events into your fictionalized NHL, you are now open to continued comparisons that you may never have intended, in particular for a very old club with deep roots in a marginalized culture to which you, the author, do not belong. It IS that deep, but you are from Nova Scotia, and you do not have a natural access to it. Worse, you have almost certainly been exposed to the nationwide bias against that culture, which—don’t even get me started.

So Rachel was mad at the management of the team she liked, and she took it out on the pages of a silly little gay romance series she was writing, never knowing exactly what a cultural touchstone that story would become. Understandable! Except the story now IS a cultural touchstone, and the real life team getting roasted in the silly little gay romance series has moved on, and its real life fanbase is bracing to watch the cultural touchstone move in parallel to the real club, which is a comparison she directly invited when she put Bergevin and Therrien functionally 1 to 1 into the text.

And the real life club is full of members of the historically marginalized culture of its original, legendary players. The real life club’s captain’s name is Suzuki. The real life club’s coach is one of the most intelligent—emotional and hockey IQ—men in the league.

The popularity of HR has already required multiple members of the real life Montreal Canadiens to give statements on the acceptance (or lack thereof) of gay men in the real life NHL. Can we expect these questions to recur and intensify if and when HR(TV) adapts the long game? Is that appropriate or fair, given the current accomplishments of the real life Habs? Was it ever appropriate for Rachel to make the assumptions she did—which became 1 to 1 as soon as she introduced proxies to Bergevin and Therrien!!!!—about the response of the city of Montreal itself to the revelation that its beloved Captain likes dick? Must my city answer for what some writer from the maritimes decided for us?

That wouldn’t be irreconcilable with his characterisation if it was clearly framed both as a flaw in that we see Shane upset by it and Ilya later apologise or at least acknowledge harm done internally (even if he is at the time cruelly satisfied by it) and as an anomalous response provoked by his own emotional state, i.e., lashing out in a moment of weakness/bitterness so to say. But instead what we get is Shane laughing or brushing it off with a canned ‘Fuck you’ he clearly doesn’t mean, anyone else in the room responding with uncomplicated amusement, and no further discussion on the matter at any other point.*

What that tells me is that RR does not see how these contradict each other and in fact believes the latter (2) consistent with the former (1). For myself, who sees the way the former is reinforced throughout this book and naturally extends from their first, I have to label the latter ooc and fault the author for the oversight. Anything else means leaving the realm of interpretation (which requires there first be text to interpret) for unfounded speculation and headcanon, which while a wonderful form of collective fanon engagement that I just as happily partake in as everyone else in fandom, is not a sign of a well-executed story.

Like. There are gripes of varying levels about the Ottawa Plan, but this is by far the most efficient change he could make to improve it. The team can still be bottom of the league right now (which maintains a lot of the plot beats from The Long Game), but if they are actively working on becoming contenders before they got the unpredictable opportunity to sign Ilya Rozanov...? Literally could be enough to move the needle on understanding how either of these hyper competitive hockey talents managed a whole year without deciding this was a terrible idea.

Ilya moving to a shitty team and becoming miserable because he's committed career suicide at his peak is so predictable it's not even funny. Same with Shane becoming upset that Ilya isn't really competitive anymore, and with both those facts putting a strain on their relationship. Planning a move a season in advance and somehow not realizing this during the multiple games where both their teams presumably destroyed Ottawa while half asleep is just unrealistic. It would stop them dead.

But.

If Ottawa is trying to win, trying to trade and draft and sign and take advantage of the benefits deliberately built in to help losing teams rebuild, then maybe they could be optimistic enough to try it anyway. Shane alludes to them needing a center during the 3am planning meeting. It's not compelling evidence as is, but it could be spun into something worth noting pretty easily. They need a center because they've rebuilt the blue line solidly but they still can't generate scoring. Ilya isn't committing career suicide. He's moving to become the offensive core of what could be a serious contender if they could make the pieces click. It's still pretty crazy - he's gambling on an untested franchise and definitely setting his Cup race back several years, minimum - but he at least seems to have a plan.

...And just to address a justification I've seen floating around in advance: signing Ilya alone is not actually conveying this. People point out that Ilya captained Boston up from mediocre to Cup winning and suggest maybe Shane is just optimistic he could do it again. Except - Ilya is a player. He's not actually making the kinds of decisions that determine if a rebuild is successful. Little baby 19-22 year old Ilya did not buckle down and plan Boston's glorious comeback. This is management stuff - the coaching staff developing lines and players, the GM and assistants negotiating trades, the scouting staff making sure they get draft picks that can fill roles, etc. Ilya's job is to be good at playing hockey.

Ilya wanting the team to be contenders wouldn't do shit unless the front office was actively and skillfully making them contenders. A feeling TLG does not get across by all accounts.