Jeffrey "Jeff" Tomlinson (born April 23, 1970) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

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professional ice hockey coach. He is currently the head coach of the

SC Rapperswil-Jona Lakers The SC Rapperswil-Jona Lakers are a professional ice hockey club from Rapperswil, Switzerland and are members of the National League. History The Lakers were founded in 1945 and were known as SC Rapperswil-Jona until 2005, when the club change ...

in the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

(NL).

Playing career

Born in

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

Manitoba Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...

, Tomlinson played for the

Prince Albert Raiders The Prince Albert Raiders are a major junior ice hockey team in the Western Hockey League. The Raiders play in the East Division of the Eastern Conference. They are based in the city of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada. The team plays its hom ...

, the

Roanoke Valley Rebels The Roanoke Valley Rebels were a minor league professional ice hockey team based in the Roanoke Valley in Virginia. The team first played in the Eastern Hockey League and then joined the Southern Hockey League. The team was originally known as ...

and the Raleigh Icecaps, before taking his game to Germany in 1992. After almost five years with EC Timmendorfer Strand, he had a short stint with the Berlin Capitals of the

Deutsche Eishockey Liga The Deutsche Eishockey Liga (for sponsorship reasons called "PENNY Deutsche Eishockey Liga") (; English: ''German Ice Hockey League'') or DEL, is a German professional ice hockey league and the highest division in German ice hockey. Founded in ...

during the 1996-97 season and then would spend the following three years in England, playing for Manchester Storm. In 2000, Tomlinson came back to the German capital city, signing with

Eisbären Berlin Eisbären Berlin (; English: ''Berlin Polar Bears'') is a professional ice hockey team based in Berlin, Germany. The team competes in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL), the highest level of play in professional German ice hockey, and is also one ...

, where he would stay for the remainder of his playing tenure. After suffering a torn ACL in November 2002, he tried to come back to the game, but decided to end his playing career in 2004.

Coaching career

Tomlinson started his career behind the bench at the

organization, serving as head coach of the club’s youth team, Eisbären Berlin Juniors, between 2004 and 2007. He then served as an assistant coach of

in the German elite league

(DEL) until 2010. In July 2010, Tomlinson was appointed head coach of fellow DEL-side

Düsseldorfer EG Düsseldorfer EG (short DEG) is a German professional ice hockey team in Düsseldorf. It was Germany's most successful hockey club for a long time and had many international players. The famous Eisstadion at the Brehmstrasse was the home venue for ...

and would guide the team to back-to-back playoff appearances. He moved to the Nürnberg IceTigers for the 2012-13 season, but was sacked in December 2012. Under his guidance, the IceTigers had suffered defeat in 15 of 25 games played. In July 2013, he returned to Eisbären Berlin, taking over as head coach on a two-year contract. He was released in December 2014 and replaced by

Uwe Krupp Uwe or UWE may refer to * Uwe (given name) * University of the West of England, Bristol * UML-based web engineering * University Würzburg's Experimental miniaturized satellites for space research UWE-1 and UWE-2 * Uwe - Wreck in Blankenese Blank ...

. In June 2015, Tomlinson agreed on a one-year deal with Swiss team

Rapperswil-Jona Lakers The SC Rapperswil-Jona Lakers are a professional ice hockey club from Rapperswil, Switzerland and are members of the National League. History The Lakers were founded in 1945 and were known as SC Rapperswil-Jona until 2005, when the club changed ...

. Later that year, he inked a contract extension through the 2017-18 campaign. He guided the Lakers to the 2016 NLB finals, where they fell short to

HC Ajoie HC Ajoie is a Swiss professional ice hockey team that competes in the National League (NL), the highest league in Switzerland. The team was founded in 1973 and plays in the Raiffeisen Arena in Porrentruy, Switzerland. HC Ajoie has won three Swis ...

. In 2016-17, he led them to another finals appearance, but fell short of the title once again, being defeated by

SC Langenthal Schlittschuh Club Langenthal known as SC Langenthal is a Swiss professional ice hockey team. They have played since the 2001–02 season in the Swiss League, the second tier of the main professional ice hockey league in Switzerland, behind the Na ...

. In the 2017-18 season, Tomlinson's Rapperswil team captured the title in the NLB and earned promotion to the top-tier National League by holding off

EHC Kloten EHC Kloten is an ice hockey team based in the city of Kloten in Switzerland. The team plays in the National League (NL). It has one of the best youth systems in Swiss ice hockey as its youth teams have won 19 championships during the last 50 year ...

in the relegation round.

Coaching internationally

Tomlinson served as head coach of the Canadian Men’s National Team at the 2014 Deutschland-Cup and was part of the coaching staff for Germany’s Men’s National Team during the 2015 World Championships, serving as assistant to head coach Pat Cortina.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tomlinson, Jeff 1970 births Berlin Capitals players Canadian ice hockey coaches Eisbären Berlin players Living people Manchester Storm (1995–2002) players Prince Albert Raiders players Raleigh IceCaps players Roanoke Valley Rebels (EHL) players Sportspeople from Winnipeg