Toni Söderholm

Toni Kristian Söderholm (born 14 April 1978) is a Finnish ice hockey coach and a retired ice hockey defenceman. He is the head coach of the German men's national team.

Toni Söderholm
Born (1978-04-14) 14 April 1978
Kauniainen, Finland
Height 6 ft 2 in (188 cm)
Weight 187 lb (85 kg; 13 st 5 lb)
Position Defence
Shot Left
Played for HIFK
SC Bern
Frölunda HC
EHC München
National team  Finland
NHL Draft Undrafted
Playing career 1998–2016

Playing career

A native of Finland's capital city of Helsinki, Söderholm played in the HIFK youth system in the early and mid-1990s before taking his game to North America. From 1995 to 1997, he attended Trinity College 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.[1] He served as team captain for the Minutemen his senior year (2001–02).

Upon graduation, Söderholm returned to HIFK and received Liiga 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 of the National League A (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 of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL), signing a one-year contract.[2] 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.[3]

International play

Söderholm earned his first caps for Finland's men's national team during the 2002–03 Euro Hockey Tour. 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.[4]

Coaching career

In June 2016, a couple of weeks after he ended his playing career, Söderholm was named development coach of EHC München of the German top-flight Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL).[5] In May 2017, he took over the head coaching job at SC Riessersee (SCR), München's affiliate in Germany's second-tier league DEL2.[6] He guided SCR to the DEL2 finals in spring 2018, where they lost to Bietigheim.[7] Söderholm earned DEL2 Coach of the Year honors for the 2017–18 season.[8] 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.[9]

Teams
Toni Söderholm

Medal record
Representing  Finland
Men's ice hockey
World Championships
Silver medal – second place 2007 Russia

Honours and accolades

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs
Regular season Playoffs
Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
1994–95 HIFK FIN U18 2526812 10110
1995–96 Trinity College School CISAA
1996–97 Trinity College School CISAA
1997–98 HIFK FIN U20 2925722 —————
1998–99 UMass Minutemen HE 3518964 —————
1999–2000 UMass Minutemen HE 323121532 —————
2000–01 UMass Minutemen HE 2417823 —————
2001–02 UMass Minutemen HE 332151728 —————
2002–03 HIFK SM-l 528152349 40224
2003–04 HIFK SM-l 5616213772 111124
2004–05 HIFK SM-l 515192430 50112
2005–06 SC Bern NLA 4412122438 60118
2006–07 SC Bern NLA 407142144 1745914
2007–08 Frölunda HC SEL 536142066 70220
2008–09 Frölunda HC SEL 36371053 —————
2008–09 HIFK SM-l 721329 20000
2009–10 HIFK SM-l 555162134 61342
2010–11 HIFK SM-l 555202562 16461012
2011–12 HIFK SM-l 608394766 42022
2012–13 HIFK SM-l 534232784 82354
2013–14 HIFK Liiga 496222832 20000
2014–15 HIFK Liiga 251111224 81346
2015–16 EHC München DEL 506202666 1424622
SM-l totals 463 60 187 247 482 66 11 19 30 36

International
Year Team Event Result   GP G A Pts PIM
2004 Finland WC 6th 70006
2005 Finland WC 7th 30000
2007 Finland WC 2nd place, silver medalist(s) 90114
Senior totals 19 0 1 1 10

References
  1. "Toni Söderholm Bio – University of Massachusetts Official Athletic Site". www.umassathletics.com. Retrieved 2016-05-19.
  2. "EHC Munchen bring Toni Soderholm to the DEL" (in German). EHC München. 2015-04-07. Retrieved 2015-04-07.
  3. "HBL: Toni Söderholm avslutar spelarkarriären – fick nytt jobb i Tyskland". svenska.yle.fi. Retrieved 2016-05-19.
  4. "FIN – Finland" (PDF). IIHF. Retrieved 2016-05-20.
  5. "Toni Söderholm rückt in den Trainerstab". ehcrb. Retrieved 2016-06-16.
  6. "EHC Red Bull München". www.redbullmuenchen.de. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  7. "Söderholm und die Vize-Meisterschaft: "Heiliger Scheiß"". www.merkur.de (in German). 2018-04-23. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  8. "DEL2 Spieler des Jahres 2017/18: Andreas Driendl". www.scriessersee.de. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  9. Ryberg, Michael (2018-12-20). "Eishockey-Bundestrainer: Der neue Sturm heißt Söderholm". www.nrz.de (in German). Retrieved 2018-12-20.
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