Toni Kristian Söderholm (born 14 April 1978) is a

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

coach and a retired

defenceman Defence or defense (in American English) in ice hockey is a player position that is primarily responsible for preventing the opposing team from scoring. They are often referred to as defencemen, D, D-men or blueliners (the latter a reference to ...

. He is the head coach of the German men's national team.

Playing career

A native of Finland's capital city of

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the capital, primate, and most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of Uusimaa in southern Finland, and has a population of . The city ...

, Söderholm played in the

HIFK HIFK, the Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna, Helsingfors (IFK, Helsingfors) rf (officially abbreviated IFK Helsingfors, colloquially often Helsingfors IFK or Helsingin IFK ) is a multi-sport association based in Helsinki, Finland. Formed in 1897 on ...

youth system in the early and mid-1990s before taking his game to North America. From 1995 to 1997, he attended

Trinity College School Trinity College School (TCS) is a co-educational, independent boarding and day school located in Port Hope, Ontario, Canada. TCS was founded on May 1, 1865, more than two years before Canadian Confederation. It includes a Senior School ...

in Ontario, then returned to HIFK for the 1997–98 season and headed across the Atlantic again to enroll at the

University of Massachusetts The University of Massachusetts is the five-campus public university system and the only public research system in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The university system includes five campuses (Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, Lowell, and a medical ...

. He served as team captain for the Minutemen his senior year (2001–02). Upon graduation, Söderholm returned to HIFK and received

Liiga The SM-liiga (marketed as just Liiga from 2013 on), (Finnish for ''League'') colloquially called the Finnish Elite League in English or FM-ligan in Swedish, is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. It is one of the six founding lea ...

Rookie of the Year honors in the 2002–03 season. In his second year in the league, Söderholm won the Pekka Rautakallio Award as the Defenceman of the Year. After his third season, in which he served as HIFK captain, he took up an offer from Switzerland and embarked on a two-year stint with

SC Bern Schlittschuh Club Bern ('' Ice-skating Club Bern'' in English) is an ice hockey team based in Bern, Switzerland. They play in the National League (NL), the top tier of the Swiss hockey league system. For the 18th year in a row, the club is the mos ...

of the

National League A The National League (NL) is a professional ice hockey league in Switzerland and is the top tier of the Swiss league system. Prior to the 2017–18 season, the league was known as National League A. During the 2018–19 season, the league h ...

(NLA) in 2005. Söderholm then signed with Frölunda HC of the Swedish Hockey League (SHL) in 2007. In the course of the second season with Frölunda, he returned to HIFK. Söderholm won the Finnish championship with HIFK in 2011 and was presented with the Jari Kurri Award as the MVP of the playoffs. On 7 April 2015, after a total of 10 seasons with HIFK's men's team, Söderholm left for a second time abroad in his professional career to provide a veteran presence with German club

EHC München EHC may refer to: * Eastern Harbour Crossing, a transport tunnel in Hong Kong * EHC Hoensbroek, a Dutch football club * The Electric Hellfire Club, an American industrial metal band * Encompass Health, an American healthcare provider * Environm ...

of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL), signing a one-year contract. He won the German championship in his single season with the München team and announced the end of his playing career several weeks later in May 2016.

International play

Söderholm earned his first caps for Finland's men's national team during the 2002–03

Euro Hockey Tour The Euro Hockey Tour (EHT) is an annual ice hockey tournament open to only the national men's teams of Czechia, Finland, Switzerland and Sweden. Most of the teams use the competition as a preparation for the upcoming World Championships or Olym ...

. In 2004, he competed in his first World Championship with Team Finland and also made the roster for the 2005 and 2007 World Championships, winning silver in 2007.

Coaching career

In June 2016, a couple of weeks after he ended his playing career, Söderholm was named development coach of

of the German top-flight Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL). In May 2017, he took over the head coaching job at

SC Riessersee SC Riessersee is a professional ice hockey team based in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Oberbayern, Germany. They currently play in The Oberliga, the third level of ice hockey in Germany. Prior to the 2013–14 season, they played in the 2nd Bundesliga ...

(SCR), München's affiliate in Germany's second-tier league

DEL2 DEL2 (also known as DEL II) is the second tier ice hockey league in Germany, below the '' Deutsche Eishockey Liga'' (DEL) and ahead of the '' Oberliga''. Founded in 2013 to replace the defunct '' 2nd Bundesliga'', DEL2 is administered by ESBG, ...

. He guided SCR to the DEL2 finals in spring 2018, where they lost to Bietigheim. Söderholm earned DEL2 Coach of the Year honors for the 2017–18 season. SCR had to file for insolvency and therefore was relegated to the Oberliga before the start of the 2018–19 campaign. However, Söderholm stayed on the job. On 20 December 2018 Söderholm was named the new head coach of the German men's national team.

Teams

. * German men's national team:

IIHF World Championships The Ice Hockey World Championships are an annual international men's ice hockey tournament organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). First officially held at the 1920 Summer Olympics, it is the sport's highest profile annual ...

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Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were h ...

Swiss National League Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland *Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri *Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia *Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss International ...

Honours and accolades

*Won the Finnish

SM-liiga The SM-liiga (marketed as just Liiga from 2013 on), (Finnish for ''League'') colloquially called the Finnish Elite League in English or FM-ligan in Swedish, is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. It is one of the six founding leagu ...

Champion (

Kanada-malja The Kanada-malja is an ice hockey club championship trophy, awarded annually to the winner of the Finnish Liiga playoffs. Kanada-malja is Finnish for "Canada Bowl"; the trophy is so named because it was donated by Canada's Finnish community in 19 ...

) in 2010–11 season. *Won the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL) champion in 2015–16 season. *Won the National League (NL) silver in 2006–07 season. *Won the

Jarmo Wasama memorial trophy The Jarmo Wasama Memorial Trophy is an ice hockey award given by the Finnish Liiga to the best rookie of the season. The trophy is named in honor of Jarmo Wasama, a young Finnish defenseman who was killed in an automobile accident in 1966. In 2020 ...

in 2003. *Won the Pekka Rautakallio trophy in 2004. *Won the Jari Kurri Trophy in 2011. *Won the Matti Keinonen trophy in 2012.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Soderholm, Toni 1978 births Finnish ice hockey coaches Finnish ice hockey defencemen Frölunda HC players Germany men's national ice hockey team coaches HIFK (ice hockey) players EHC München players SC Bern players Living people People from Kauniainen Swedish-speaking Finns UMass Minutemen ice hockey players Sportspeople from Uusimaa