Toni Kristian Söderholm (born 14 April 1978) is a Finnish

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

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 Goal (ice hockey), scoring. They are often referred to as defencemen, D, D-men or blueliners (the l ...

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

Playing career

A native of Finland's capital

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

, 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 for ...

in Ontario. For the 1997-98 season, he returned to HIFK and headed across the Atlantic again to enroll at the

University of Massachusetts The University of Massachusetts is the Public university, public university system of the Massachusetts, Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The university system includes six campuses (Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, University of Massachusetts Lowell ...

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

Liiga The Liiga, colloquially called the Finnish Elite League in English or FM-ligan in Swedish, is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. The league comprises 16 teams from all around Finland with relegation and promotion between the Mesti ...

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 a professional ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rin ...

of the

National League A The National League (NL) is a professional ice hockey league in Switzerland and the highest level 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. In 2007, Söderholm signed with

Frölunda HC Frölunda Hockey Club, previously known as the Frölunda Indians, is a Swedish professional ice hockey club based in Gothenburg. They currently play in the highest Swedish league, the Swedish Hockey League (SHL), formerly the Elitserien, where th ...

of the

Swedish Hockey League The Swedish Hockey League (SHL; ) is a professional ice hockey league in Sweden and the highest level of the ice hockey in Sweden, Swedish ice hockey system. The league currently consists of 14 teams. The league was founded in 1975, and while Li ...

(SHL). 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 * Environmenta ...

of the

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

(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 the Czech national ice hockey team, Czech Republic, Finnish national men's ice hockey team, Finland, Switzerland men's national ice hockey tea ...

. 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

(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 (ice hockey), Oberliga, the third level of ice hockey in Germany. Prior to the 2013–14 season, they played ...

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

DEL2 DEL2 (also known as Deutsche Eishockey Liga 2 or DEL II) is the second tier ice hockey league in Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Se ...

. 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. The IIHF was created in 1908 while the E ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (), also known as the Winter Olympics, 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 held i ...

, Swiss National League *

EHC Red Bull München Eishockeyclub Red Bull München (or EHC Red Bull München; English: ''Munich Red Bulls Ice Hockey Club'') is a professional ice hockey team based in Munich, Germany. The club is a member of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL), the highest level of p ...

DEL Del, or nabla, is an operator used in mathematics (particularly in vector calculus) as a vector differential operator, usually represented by the nabla symbol ∇. When applied to a function defined on a one-dimensional domain, it denotes ...

. *

TPS TPS or Tps may refer to: In arts and entertainment *Télévision Par Satellite, a French satellite television company *Third-person shooter, a game genre * Torsonic Polarity Syndrome, in ''South Park'' animation * Trailer Park Sex, a band from ...

Honours and accolades

*Won the Finnish

SM-liiga The Liiga, colloquially called the Finnish Elite League in English or FM-ligan in Swedish, is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. The league comprises 16 teams from all around Finland with relegation and promotion between the Mest ...

Champion (

Kanada-malja The Kanada-malja, or Poika (Literally "''Boy''" or "''Son''"), is an ice hockey club championship trophy, awarded annually to the winner of the Finnish SM-liiga playoffs. Kanada-malja is Finnish language, Finnish for "Canada Bowl"; the trophy is s ...

) in 2010–11 season. *Won the

(DEL) champion in 2015–16 season. *Won the National League (NL) silver in 2006–07 season. *Won the Jarmo Wasama memorial trophy in 2003. *Won the

Pekka Rautakallio trophy The Pekka Rautakallio trophy is an ice hockey award given by the Finland, Finnish Liiga to the best defenceman of the season. In 1995 the award was renamed to carry the name of its first winner Pekka Rautakallio. In 2019 it was awarded to Oliwer Ka ...

in 2004. *Won the

Jari Kurri Trophy The Jari Kurri Trophy is an ice hockey trophy awarded by the Finnish Liiga to the best player in the Liiga playoffs. The trophy is named after Jari Kurri. In the 2005–06 season, the trophy was awarded to the player voted the best player in the ...

in 2011. *Won the

Matti Keinonen trophy The Matti Keinonen Trophy () is an ice hockey award given by the Finnish Liiga The Liiga, colloquially called the Finnish Elite League in English or FM-ligan in Swedish, is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. The league compris ...

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 Ice hockey people from Uusimaa Finnish expatriate ice hockey players in Germany Finnish expatriate ice hockey players in the United States Finnish expatriate ice hockey players in Canada Finnish expatriate ice hockey coaches Finnish expatriate ice hockey players in Switzerland Finnish expatriate ice hockey players in Sweden Ice hockey coaches at the 2022 Winter Olympics