Lahtinen began his coaching career in 1976 as player-head coach of
Tingsryds AIF of
Division 1, the second-tier league in
Sweden. He also coached
Karlskrona IK and
HV71 before becoming head coach of
Södertälje SK in the
Elitserien in 1983. After two seasons with Södertälje, Lahtinen moved to
Switzerland and coached
EHC Arosa,
SC Bern and
Zürcher SC over the next four years. He returned to Sweden in 1989 and became head coach of
Malmö IF where he coached for five seasons. He returned to Switzerland in 1994 to coach
HC Lugano before returning to Sweden once more to coach
AIK IF. In 1998, Lahtinen moved to
Germany's
Deutsche Eishockey Liga and became head coach for the
Kölner Haie. He was fired during the 1999-00 season and become head coach of
Jokerit shortly afterwards, replacing
Hannu Kapanen. He returned to Södertälje as a midseason replacement during 2002–03. He remained until the 2004–05 season where he was replaced by
Mats Hallin. He then returned to another former team, Malmö, in 2006 as a senior advisor and board member. He returned to coaching in 2010, becoming head coach for
Romanian team
HSC Csíkszereda of the
MOL Liga. ==References==