Before Off Campus:
The Hockey Romance Authors Who Built the Rink
If you’ve spent any time on BookTok, Instagram, or Prime Video lately, you’ve probably noticed that hockey romance is having a very public moment.
Amazon’s adaptation of Off Campus has officially arrived, bringing Elle Kennedy’s beloved Briar University hockey players to television screens everywhere. The series was such a success that it was renewed for a second season before many viewers had even finished watching the first. (Good Housekeeping)
As someone who has been reading romance for a long time, I love seeing hockey romance get this kind of mainstream attention.
But I also think this is the perfect time to remember something important:
Hockey romance didn’t start with Off Campus.
Don’t get me wrong. The Deal absolutely deserves its flowers. It introduced an entire generation of readers to hockey romance. For many readers, Garrett Graham was their first book boyfriend wearing skates.
But before Prime Video, before BookTok, before special editions and hockey jerseys showing up at romance conventions, there were authors quietly building this subgenre one book at a time.
And the best part?
Most of those books still hold up.
The Authors Who Were Doing It Before It Was Cool
Toni Aleo
If hockey romance had founding mothers, Toni Aleo would be at the top of the list.
Her Assassins series launched back in 2011, when hockey romance was still a niche within a niche. These books gave readers interconnected teams, family drama, emotional storylines, and athletes who felt like real people long before sports romance became one of romance publishing’s biggest categories.
Many hockey romance readers didn’t discover the genre through TikTok.
They discovered it through Toni Aleo.
Kelly Jamieson
Kelly Jamieson was writing hockey romance while many readers still thought sports romance only meant football or baseball.
Her books leaned into professional hockey culture, team dynamics, and the realities of life around the sport. If you’re looking for classic hockey romance, she’s one of the authors worth revisiting.
Jami Davenport
Before sports romance became a dominant category, Jami Davenport was building entire athletic worlds with her Seattle-based teams.
Her hockey books helped establish many of the conventions readers now expect from the genre.
The Authors Who Helped Hockey Romance Explode
Elle Kennedy
You can’t have this conversation without Elle Kennedy.
The Off-Campus books changed the trajectory of hockey romance. They brought college hockey into the mainstream and introduced readers to heroes who were funny, vulnerable, messy, and emotionally available.
The fact that we’re now watching Hannah and Garrett on television speaks to just how influential these books became. (Wikipedia)
Sarina Bowen
Sarina Bowen deserves just as much credit for helping hockey romance reach a wider audience.
From Brooklyn Bruisers to co-writing Him, Bowen’s books blended sports, friendship, found family, and emotional depth in ways that influenced countless hockey romances that followed.
Helena Hunting
If Off Campus made readers fall in love with hockey players, Pucked showed them hockey romance could be absolutely ridiculous in the best possible way.
Helena Hunting brought humor, chaos, and larger-than-life personalities to the rink.
The genre became more fun because she was willing to embrace the absurdity.
The Hockey Romance Empire Builder
Sawyer Bennett
One thing I think newer readers sometimes miss is that hockey romance wasn’t built on standalones.
It was built on teams.
Sawyer Bennett understood that early.
Through Cold Fury Hockey, Arizona Vengeance, and later Pittsburgh Titans, she created the kind of interconnected hockey universes that readers love to live in for years.
Every book felt like coming home to the locker room.
The Authors Who Expanded the Genre
Rachel Reid
If we’re talking about influential hockey romance, we have to talk about Rachel Reid.
The Game Changers series, especially Heated Rivalry, helped redefine what hockey romance could be. Her books explored identity, vulnerability, and queer experiences in professional sports with remarkable emotional depth.
Years later, readers still recommend them daily.
Eden Finley
Finley helped bring even more readers into MM hockey romance and expanded the audience for the subgenre as a whole.
Why These Books Still Matter
One of the things I love about romance is that readers are always discovering books through new doorways.
Today, many readers are finding hockey romance through Off Campus on Prime Video. (Amazon News)
Ten years ago, they were finding it through Pucked, The Deal, Assassins, or Cold Fury.
The doorway changes.
The stories don’t.
What strikes me most when I revisit these older hockey romances is how many of them still feel fresh. The technology may be different. Some of the references may show their age.
But the things readers actually care about?
The banter.
The friendships.
The found family.
The emotional payoff.
The chemistry.
The locker room brotherhood.
Those things haven’t changed at all.
And maybe that’s the real reason hockey romance continues to thrive.
Not because it’s trendy.
Not because it’s viral.
But because for more than a decade, talented authors have been figuring out how to tell stories about ambitious people chasing dreams, finding love, and discovering who they are both on and off the ice.
The TV cameras may have finally arrived.
But the rink was already full.
If you’re a longtime hockey romance reader, who was your gateway author? And if Off Campus brought you here, which OG hockey romance author are you picking up next? 🏒📚☕️