The Buffalo hockey community is remembering Brent Peterson, a former Sabres forward whose playing days in western New York were only one chapter in a long life around the game.
Peterson died Friday morning at 68 after more than two decades living with Parkinson’s disease.
The Nashville Predators, the organization with which he spent nearly 30 years after leaving the ice, announced his passing and described him as a friend, coworker, and lasting member of the franchise family.
Peterson arrived in Buffalo after being selected by Detroit in the 1978 NHL Draft. He played four seasons with the Sabres from 1981 to 1985, appearing in 265 games and recording 34 goals and 49 assists.
Those years were part of a 12-season NHL career that also included stops with the Red Wings, Vancouver Canucks, and Hartford Whalers. He was a reliable two-way presence rather than a headline scorer, the kind of player who filled a role and stayed in the lineup.
His deeper imprint on the sport came after he stopped playing. In 1998 he joined the Predators as an assistant coach for the franchise’s first game and remained on the bench until he stepped away in 2011.
He then moved into the broadcast booth, staying close to the team and to the city that had become home. Nashville’s tribute noted that he thought of others before himself until the end, that he loved a good laugh, and that he met Parkinson’s with a smile and a joke even on difficult days.
The disease had been part of his life since 2002. In 2009 he founded the Peterson Foundation for Parkinson’s to support people living with the illness, along with their caregivers and families.
The Predators said he became a beacon for many in that fight and an inspiration to hundreds of players, coaches, and staff members over nearly three decades with the club.
The Sabres offered their own brief remembrance, noting his four seasons in blue and gold and his later success as a coach and broadcaster, and extending thoughts to his family and friends.
Peterson is survived by his wife, Tami, his son Brad, his daughter Kristin, and a wider circle of relatives and colleagues. The organizations that knew him asked for prayers and support for them. His story is not only one of statistics and job titles.
It is the story of a player who found a second and third act in coaching and broadcasting, and of a man who turned a private diagnosis into public work for others facing the same illness.
Hockey in Buffalo and Nashville both lose someone who stayed in the game long after his last shift.
