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Private Voyageurs Group Chat Leaked to Independent Journalist
Content Warning: The following article contains strong language and references to racist and homophobic remarks. Reader discretion is advised.
This journalist has been provided with a series of photographs appearing to show excerpts from a private group chat involving multiple members of the Montreal Voyageurs.
The source, who requested anonymity due to internal repercussions, did not approach team media or league communications. Instead, the material was delivered directly to an unaffiliated reporter with no contractual ties to the organisation.
This journalist has made the decision to remove players’ names to allow the league time to investigate internally.
The images are photographs of a player’s phone screen and they span several months following the public confirmation of Shane Hollander’s relationship with Ilya Rozanov.
What they reveal is not a single emotional reaction. It is a pattern.
The chat includes repeated profanity, sustained hostility, and language that crosses into both homophobic and racially charged territory. Explicit slurs directed at Hollander’s sexuality and heritage are present in multiple exchanges and have been omitted here.
In one exchange discussing a loss to Ottawa following a fall from Hollander, a player writes:
“You really expect me to believe that was just a fluke?”
Another responds:
“He’s been playing both sides. Fucking obvious now.”
During a later discussion about team leadership, a message reads:
“Captain should’ve said something. Instead we find out like the rest of the world? That’s weak as shit.”
Another:
“Whole thing makes sense now. Always knew something was off.”
Several comments reference Hollander’s mixed heritage. One message states:
“Can’t believe we’re acting surprised. Look at him.”
The reply:
“Yeah. Guess he checks enough boxes.”
In a separate thread, the possibility of benching Hollander is discussed. One player writes:
“If this was anyone else, they’d be pulled.”
Another responds:
“If he was white and straight, he’d already be fucking benched.”
A third message follows:
“But we can’t touch him. You know that. He’s the league’s inclusivity poster boy.”
The exchange continues with agreement.
“Exactly. Optics.”
“Try benching him now and see how that plays.”
The word “liability” appears multiple times throughout the excerpts.
“This is why you don’t let that shit into the room,” one message reads.
Another:
“League’s loving this. We look like idiots.”
Notably absent from the messages provided is any pushback. No participant challenges the tone. No one suggests restraint. The language, while crude, appears normalised.
Hockey locker rooms are not known for delicate phrasing. Profanity alone is not news. But sustained homophobic insinuations, racially coded commentary, and discussions of leadership framed around optics rather than performance suggest deeper fractures.
The excerpts raise significant questions about locker room culture, internal trust, and the gap between public support and private belief.
The Voyageurs have not yet issued a formal statement regarding the authenticity of the messages. As noted above, players’ names have been removed to allow the league to investigate internally. If the messages are proven to be genuine and no action is taken against the players involved, then this journalist will release the whole, unedited collection of images.
Ilya: Love, are you home?
Ilya: Are you with people?
Ilya: let me know you’re okay
Ilya: Please
…
Ilya: I want you to stay off the internet until after the game, please
Ilya: If you have seen it, please call me
Ilya: I will wait, delay the game
Ilya: I don’t care.
Ilya: They can’t start without me
Shane: They can and they will
Ilya: Sweetheart...
Shane: I saw
Shane: Several people have sent it to me
Shane: I was getting coffee at the time
Shane: I’m now just walking
Ilya: Call me
Shane: You’ve got a game to win
Ilya: I hate that I’m not there
Shane: Go beat Miami, call me after the game
Shane: I just need to process for a while
Ilya: Harris is still at work
Ilya: Go be with him
Ilya: You need someone
Ilya: What is the saying
Ilya: In your wall?
Shane: It’s “in your corner”
Shane: And you knew that
Ilya: 😈
Shane: But okay, I’ll text him and see if he wouldn’t mind the company. I’m not that far out
Shane: Hey, are you still in the office?
Harris: Hey buddy. Yeah, Ilya texted not long ago to let me know you may be popping over
Shane: Thanks
Shane: Did you want a coffee? It’s an eggnog latte, right?
Harris: 🥰
Shane: See you soon
Shane: I know you’re playing, but I have an idea, and Harris is on board.
Shane: I’m done with keeping quiet. Everyone now knows about us. And they’re making assumptions
Shane: Not just Montreal
Shane: The world
Shane: So I want to make a statement
Shane: But not something that comes across defensive
Shane: Or something that feels like it has been cleansed by every PR rep
Shane: Harris has agreed to interview me
Shane: We are going to film it tonight
Shane: Harris says he’ll send you a copy
Shane: You can say not to release it
Shane: Or to change anything
Shane: But I just feel like I need to take back some control
…
Ilya: Do it
Shane: How do you even have your phone? I can see you on the bench!
Ilya: Coach is worried because I am worried. He kept it for me so I could check in
Shane: Your coach is the best
Ilya: I asked him to! Don’t give him all the credit!
Shane: I love you
Ilya: I know
Shane: We should have never been talked into watching that Star Wars movie
Ilya: 😈
Ilya: I love you too
Ilya: You should do it
Ilya: Only if you’re ready
Shane: I am
— VIDEO TRANSCRIPT —
[The camera shifts, the focus settling to reveal Shane Hollander and Harris Drover sitting in opposing chairs.]
Harris: Would you like to introduce yourself, and why we are here tonight?
Shane: I’m sure my face has been plastered all over the news these last few months, and again after today’s news. [Shane drags his hand across his face.] My name is Shane Hollander, I’m captain of the Montreal Voyageurs, and I’m here to talk about the massive elephant in the room for the last few months, as well as the news that has broken today. I’m here to clear the air about me, Ilya Rozanov, and the leaked texts from a secret Montreal group chat.
Harris: Are you sure you want to talk about the texts? They’ve only just been shared this morning. This must still be a shock for you?
Shane: No, I meant, yes. Fuck. Wait — can I swear?
Harris: Of course, this is your space.
Shane: Thank fuck. Yes, I’m sure I want to talk about the texts, but I’m not surprised by them.
Harris: What do you mean by that?
Shane: It’s nothing I haven’t been hearing muttered behind me over these last few months, ever since mine and Ilya’s relationship got leaked. Do you remember that first Montreal/Ottawa match after? You guys won after I tripped on my own skate. But that’s not what my team saw. I’d been getting the cold shoulder for weeks by that point, but that night, after the match was another level. I had everyone questioning me as to whether it was an accident or not. Fuck, J.J. was even the one who started the questions, begging me to tell him it was an accident. [Shane leans forward in his chair and runs his hand through his hair.] The only person who was on my side, who defended me from day one, was Hayden.
Harris: Why do you think that was?
Shane: Hayden had figured it out a couple of years ago, so he knew about Ilya—
Harris: Sorry, I meant why do you think the rest of the team reacted like that?
Shane: Oh. I don’t know, maybe they thought I was trying to do him a favour? Fraternising with the enemy? Buttering him up? I have no idea. It’s not like we haven’t lost to him before, not like we don’t know he’s a very skilled player. [Shane locks eyes with Harris.] Please edit that out, his head’s big enough, he doesn’t need the ego boost.
Harris: [Laughs] That’s true, but I’ve gotta keep it in, I’m afraid. But can I ask a sensitive question? We’ve seen the texts, the homophobic and racial slurs used freely, but what hurts the most about all of this?
Shane: It’s got to be the betrayal. They think I’ve changed. that whatever they’re seeing now must be because of Ilya, like that explains everything. I’m still the same person. Yes, I changed, but in the way that everyone does when they grow up. Life does that to you. But the difference is that I did most of that quietly. Hiding that part of me just became normal. Watching what I said, where I went, who I stood next to. Not because we were ashamed. We weren’t, not in the end. We were scared of… this. The noise. The speculation. The way one moment turns into headlines and opinions and people who don’t know you deciding who you are. You tell yourself you’re being careful, that you’re protecting something that matters, and then one day people decide that careful means dishonest.
Harris: Yeah. I think… people are calling it a lie. Like you owed them something.
Shane: That’s why I wanted to do this I guess. I’m tired of people assuming they know us just because we are celebrities, as much as I hate that term. What people see is what we want them to see, that’s what this whole thing has shown. The average person wouldn’t know that I have to research every movie Ilya and I watch just to make sure the dogs don’t get harmed. “Marley and Me” was a tough lesson for us both. [Laughs.] But while we both put a version of ourselves forward, it’s never an act. What you see on the ice, especially between the two of us, is real. We are competitive to a fault. That’s never been a weakness. If anything, it’s what’s made both of us better. The irony about all of this is that the thing people are questioning now is the same thing that made me the player I am. I don’t compartmentalise well. I never have. When something matters to me, it shows up everywhere. On the ice. In the room. In how I lead. So when the video leaked, and suddenly that part of my life was treated like a liability, that was new.
Harris: Liability how?
Shane: We were benched. Immediately. Not because of how we played. Because it was “a lot” for people.
Harris: I didn’t realise that was connected.
Shane: Most people didn’t. We were pulled in after. There was a version of events suggested that would’ve made it easier. Cleaner. More palatable. There was a narrative put forward that we were expected to accept and expected to sell.
Harris: A narrative?
Shane: We were expected to tell the world that it was a prank. That it meant nothing. That we were nothing.
[Harris sits forward, eyes wide]
Harris: Seriously? What did you do?
Shane: I told him where to shove it. Probably not my wisest move.
Harris: Jesus, Shane—
Shane: Okay, maybe not in those exact words. But I was fucking pissed. No one’s really seen that level of anger from me, other than Ilya. And Scott Hunter, that one time. So I don’t think he was expecting that from me. I wasn’t just going to sit there and take it. I wasn’t going to let him pretend that the last eleven years of my life was a marketing strategy for our charity, or some other bullshit idea he had.
[Silence.]
Harris: … eleven years?
Shane: Yeah. [He exhales, running a hand over his face.] Since before our rookie season started. Before the draft. Through three Stanley Cups. Through my entire career.
[Shane shifts to face the camera and look directly into the lens]
Shane: So to everyone who’s questioned my actions on the ice since they found out: fuck you.
[He holds the camera’s gaze a second longer before sitting back and focusing on Harris again.]
Harris: Well said.
[Harris takes a deep breath while Shane takes a drink of water.]
Harris: Now, I’m going to ask this because I know people will start to question it. Rose Landry. You’ve said you and Ilya have been together for the last eleven years—
Shane: Not quite. Ilya and I were not exclusive for the majority of our time together. We only became exclusive in the last couple of years. But I’ll be clear: I have never cheated on Ilya Rozanov or on Rose Landry. And there are no hard feelings there, either. I have all of the love in the world for Rose. She has become one of my best friends. But we were never going to work, no matter how hard I tried.
Harris: So just to be completely clear, because people will try to twist it—
Shane: I’ve never cheated. On either of them. On anyone.
Harris: And Rose knew?
Shane: Not everything. But she knew who I knew myself to be at the time. Who I thought I was. That’s all I’m going to say about her, though. She deserves privacy. She deserves respect.
Harris: Okay.
[Brief pause.]
Harris: When you say you and Ilya weren’t exclusive for most of that time… what does that actually mean?
Shane: It means we were young. It means we were scared. It means we didn’t think we were allowed to build something that real, so we kept it in the dark, stealing moments wherever we could.
Harris: But it never stopped.
Shane: No.
Harris: So what changed?
Shane: What do you mean?
Harris: What made you go from stolen moments to…
Shane: To dating? Um. [Shane glances at the camera] That’s not really something I want to share with the world at this moment.
[The camera feed jumps. Shane looks bashful. Harris looks emotional, his eyes glassy though no tears fall.]
Harris: That is so fucking sweet.
Shane: I know. Shut up. And don’t tell him I told you.
[Brief pause.]
Shane: You’re definitely going to tell him, aren’t you?
Harris: [Laughs.] Yeah, buddy. Sorry.
Shane: [Laughs too.] Anyway, what was your next question?
Harris: Okay, let’s start wrapping this up. If someone younger is watching this, some kid in juniors, or a rookie in a locker room somewhere, what would you want them to take from this?
Shane: That you don’t owe anyone access to you. You don’t owe them a watered-down version of yourself. And you definitely don’t owe them shame.
Harris: And what do you think of the future of hockey?
Shane: Hockey’s bigger than this moment. But it’s moments like this that decide what it becomes.
Harris: How so?
Shane: Because every room gets tested. Every organisation gets tested. You find out who people really are when it costs something. When Scott Hunter came out, it was a monumental moment. The league couldn’t push back against it. But imagine if, when Barrett came out, he had been pulled into a similar office and given a similar narrative to what we were given. It would’ve created the optics that the league was accepting because of Scott, while in reality they’d shut anyone else down the same way. Don’t get me wrong. The league has come a long way with the handful of players who’ve come out. But it still has a long way to go.
Harris: And after those texts?
Shane: After those texts, it stops being theoretical. It’s one thing to say you support something in public. It’s another to see what’s said in private. That’s when you find out what a room actually believes.
Harris: So what happens now?
Shane: Now there’s accountability. However that looks.
Harris: And if there isn’t?
Shane: Then that tells you something too.
[Brief pause.]
Harris: I think we’ll leave it there. Before we go, is there anything else you would like to say?
Shane: [Looks down the camera, eyes soft.] Ya tebya lyublyu.