Remembering Brent Peterson: The Coach Who Taught Us Consistency

Brent Peterson passed away on September 11, 2026, at age 68, and if you spent any time around the Nashville Predators over the last three decades, you knew him as Petey. He was an Assistant Coach with the team for 13 seasons, there for the franchise's very first game back in 1998 and still on the bench through 2011, before he moved into the broadcast booth as a radio color commentator. Along the way he and his wife Tami started the Peterson Foundation for Parkinsons, and turned his own diagnosis into something that raised millions of dollars for other people fighting the same disease.

"Attitude determines altitude."

Back in 2012, we were fortunate enough to have Petey sit down with The Coaches Site to talk about consistency, which is something every coach wrestles with no matter what level you're coaching at, and the same rules apply whether you're running a business, coaching a hobby team, or raising a family. So how do you actually identify consistency in a program? For Peterson it started with how the team plays, and he told a great story about how the perception from outside a program can vary wildly from what it actually feels like on the inside.

His whole answer came down to five things:

• Hire the right people
• Have a clear vision
• Implement the vision
• Believe in the vision
• Be consistent

Petey was a wonderful storyteller, and in a lot of ways he set the tone for the consistency we value at The Coaches Site and the values we try to share with coaches every week. As Barry Trotz's long-time partner behind the Predators bench, Peterson preached accountability as a long-term fuel for consistency, and he broke down what your people actually need from you:

• Knowledge
• Personality and people skills
• Roles
• Communication

In Nashville, Peterson and Trotz would constantly preach "no excuses" to the players, in any conversation, any drill, any tactic. Peterson embodied that mindset himself, especially when it came to people skills. Attitude determines altitude, and you have to do the right thing no matter what. Even while he was fighting Parkinson's, as he was during this very presentation, he faced it with grace and resiliency, and hearing him speak was electric. We would have loved to learn from him one more time.

He presented with a humility and passion that will live on in his legacy. He touched the lives of countless players over the years, from Ryan Suter and Shea Weber to Martin Erat and Alex Radulov, and he saw it all. Now, forever, he'll touch the lives of coaches all over the world.

Rest easy, Petey.