Tomas Holmstrom spent 15 seasons standing in front of opposing goalies for the Detroit Red Wings and won the Stanley Cup four times. He retired in 2013 and spent most of the next decade away from the game in northern Sweden. Then, in January 2026, the club where it all started called him, and he said yes.
What is Tomas Holmstrom doing now?
Tomas Holmstrom is the head coach of Pitea HC, his boyhood club, which plays in Hockeyettan, the third tier of Swedish hockey. He took over in January 2026 together with co-coach Daniel Rankvist, after the club fired its previous coaching duo, NHL.com’s Swedish edition reported. The arrangement was meant for the last seven weeks of the season, but in March 2026 Pitea-Tidningen reported that both coaches had extended for 2026-27, after results and play had improved through the spring.
Their first season ended in March with a 4-3 loss to Kalix, but sports director Anton Wallsten told the paper the club had no doubts about keeping the pair, who had developed the team, the players, and the club’s whole operation.
| Tomas Holmstrom: then and now | |
|---|---|
| Known for | Four Stanley Cups with Detroit and his place in front of the net |
| Position | Left wing, shoots left |
| Born | 23 January 1973, Pitea, Sweden |
| Drafted | 1994, 10th round, 257th overall, Detroit Red Wings |
| NHL career | 15 seasons, 1,026 games, all with Detroit |
| Last NHL season | 2011-12, Detroit Red Wings |
| Current role | Head coach of Pitea HC, Hockeyettan, as of March 2026 |
| Business | Construction and machinery company |
“Pitea is something I have in my DNA,” he told NHL.com when he took the job, adding that he watches all the hockey he can on television and that the idea had been simmering for a while. It had been 32 years since he last played for the club. He played for Pitea until Lulea signed him in 1994. His father worked at the club as equipment manager for more than 30 years, and his son is a forward on the team he now coaches. As a coach, he told NHL.com, he wants more direct play, more shots on goal and one player on every line willing to stand in front of the net, the job he did himself for 15 years in Detroit.
Hockey is not his main job. Since retiring, he has run a business in construction and machinery, and he had been away from the game for five years before Pitea called. His only coaching before that was with the Norrbotten regional team in 2016-17 and as an assistant with Pitea’s under-18 team from 2019 to 2021.
Tomas Holmstrom’s four Stanley Cups in front of the net
Tomas Holmstrom won the Stanley Cup with Detroit in 1997, 1998, 2002 and 2008, playing alongside Nicklas Lidstrom, Steve Yzerman and later Henrik Zetterberg. Known as “Homer” in Detroit and “Holma” in Sweden, he had a role that rarely changed: he stood in front of the opposing goalie, screened, tipped and took the punishment that came with it. Goalies and defencemen took their frustrations out on him for 15 seasons, and he did not move.
He came to Detroit in 1996, the year he won the Swedish championship with Lulea, and he never played for another NHL team. He added 97 points in 180 playoff games, many from the edge of the crease, and he also won Olympic gold with Sweden in 2006.
When did Tomas Holmstrom retire?
Tomas Holmstrom officially retired on 22 January 2013, a year after his last NHL game. At his press conference in Detroit he gave a simple reason, SVT reported: his knees had nothing left. He said then that he would stay in Detroit for another year and a half before moving home to Sweden, where he planned to hunt, look after his property investments and a sports shop business in Pitea, and that he did not expect to work as a scout. For more than a decade, he kept to that plan.
Is Tomas Holmstrom in the Hall of Fame?
No. Tomas Holmstrom has not been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, and he was not part of the 2026 class. Two of his Detroit teammates from the 2008 Cup team, Nicklas Lidstrom and Pavel Datsyuk, have been inducted. Holmstrom’s case rests on four championships and 1,026 games rather than on scoring totals, with 530 regular-season points.
Tomas Holmstrom’s NHL stats, from the 257th pick
| Season | GP | G | A | P |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996-97 | 47 | 6 | 3 | 9 |
| 1997-98 | 57 | 5 | 17 | 22 |
| 1998-99 | 82 | 13 | 21 | 34 |
| 1999-2000 | 72 | 13 | 22 | 35 |
| 2000-01 | 73 | 16 | 24 | 40 |
| 2001-02 | 69 | 8 | 18 | 26 |
| 2002-03 | 74 | 20 | 20 | 40 |
| 2003-04 | 67 | 15 | 15 | 30 |
| 2005-06 | 81 | 29 | 30 | 59 |
| 2006-07 | 77 | 30 | 22 | 52 |
| 2007-08 | 59 | 20 | 20 | 40 |
| 2008-09 | 53 | 14 | 23 | 37 |
| 2009-10 | 68 | 25 | 20 | 45 |
| 2010-11 | 73 | 18 | 19 | 37 |
| 2011-12 | 74 | 11 | 13 | 24 |
| Total | 1,026 | 243 | 287 | 530 |
All seasons with Detroit. Figures are from Hockey-Reference. His scoring rose late in his career: after the 2004-05 lockout, which he spent back home with Lulea, he scored 29 goals in 2005-06 and his only 30-goal season in 2006-07, at 34. He played his last NHL game in 2012, at 39.
Detroit took Tomas Holmstrom 257th overall in 1994, near the very end of a 286-pick draft, and only four players from that entire class played more NHL games, according to the 1994 draft table on Hockey-Reference: Ryan Smyth, Daniel Alfredsson, Patrik Elias and Ed Jovanovski.
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