Head Coach
Ahokas, comes to Kitchener with 20 consecutive years of head coaching experience and is today known as one of the most decorated bench bosses in European professional hockey, being named the Alliance of European Hockey Clubs’ (EHC) 2019-20 Coach of the Year across Europe’s top professional hockey leagues spanning Germany (Deutsche Eishockey Liga – DEL), Finland (Finnish Elite League – Liiga), Sweden (Swedish Hockey League – SHL), and Switzerland (National League – NL).
Impressively, Ahokas has earned two prominent Gold Medals while serving as the Head Coach of Team Finland on the international stage. He was the Head Coach of Team Finland when the Fins defeated Team USA to capture the Gold Medal at the 2019 IIHF World Juniors in Vancouver, B.C., and was also the Head Coach when the Fins defeated Sweden to capture the Gold Medal at the 2016 IIHF World U18 Championships in Grand Forks, N.D.
A native of Espoo, Finland, Ahokas has spent the last four seasons as a head coach in the Finnish Elite League (Liiga), Finland’s top men’s professional hockey league. He led Kouvola KooKoo from a 73-point campaign the year prior to his arrival, to a 110-point campaign in his first season in 2019-20, a 37-point jump in the Liiga standings where he was then awarded the Kalevi Numminen Trophy, given to Liiga’s Coach of the Year. After earning a promotion to be the Head Coach of Turku TPS in 2021, Ahokas led the club to back-to-back best-of-seven Liiga Playoffs series victories, en-route to a Silver Medal, in his first season in Turku.
Ahokas served as the video coach for Team Finland’s women’s team who won a Bronze Medal at the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver and was the assistant coach for Team Finland that won Bronze Medals at both the 2008 and 2009 IIHF World Women’s Championships in China and Finland respectively. Additionally, Ahokas served as a guest coach at the Chicago Blackhawks camp in 2015 and 2016.
Prior to his time in the Finnish Elite League, Ahokas was the Head Coach of U16-through-U20 age groups for 15 years. Most notably, Ahokas was the Head Coach of Finland’s National Junior Team for six seasons spanning the U16, U17, U18, U19, and U20 levels.
Ahokas’ Recent Notable Accomplishments:
- 2015-16 World U18 Championship – Gold Medal
- 2016-17 World Juniors
- 2017-18 World Juniors
- 2018-19 World Juniors – Gold Medal
- 2019-20 Kouvola KooKoo (Liiga) – EHC Coach of the Year
- 2020-21 Kouvola KooKoo (Liiga)
- 2021-22 Turku TPS (Liiga) – Silver Medal
- 2022-23 Turku TPS (Liiga)
- 2023-24 Kitchener Rangers (OHL)