COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Brett Peterson (Northborough, Mass.), who is in his sixth season as assistant general manager of the Florida Panthers, will serve as general manager of the 2026 U.S. Men’s National Team, it was announced today by USA Hockey.
Peterson also served as the GM for the U.S. Men’s National Team at the 2024 IIHF Men’s World Championship in Ostrava and Prague, Czechia, and was the assistant general manager of the gold medal-winning 2025 U.S. Men’s National Team in Herning, Denmark, and Stockholm, Sweden.
“We’re really excited to have Brett back,” said John Vanbiesbrouck, assistant executive director of hockey operations for USA Hockey. “He’s done a great job at Florida, including helping the Panthers to Stanley Cup titles the last two years, and he has a really good handle on our overall player pool as we look to build a team that can compete to defend the gold medal we won a year ago.”
The U.S. Men’s National Team will play in the 2026 IIHF Men’s World Championship, May 15-31, in Zurich and Fribourg, Switzerland. Team USA, which will enter the tournament as defending gold medalist, is in Group A for the preliminary round alongside Austria, Finland, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Latvia and host Switzerland. All Group A games will be played at Swiss Life Arena in Zurich. Group B, which includes Canada, Czechia, Denmark, Italy, Norway, Slovakia, Slovenia and Sweden, will play its preliminary round games at BCF Arena in Fribourg.
The U.S. Men’s National Team Advisory Group, led by Vanbiesbrouck and including NHL general managers Stan Bowman (Edmonton Oilers), Craig Conroy (Calgary Flames), Chris Drury (New York Rangers), Tom Fitzgerald (New Jersey Devils), Mike Grier (San Jose Sharks), Bill Guerin (Minnesota Wild), Chris MacFarland (Colorado Avalanche), Chris Patrick (Washington Capitals), Eric Tulsky (Carolina Hurricanes), Don Waddell (Columbus Blue Jackets) and Bill Zito (Florida Panthers), will assist Peterson in assembling the roster for 2026 U.S. Men’s National Team.