Internationally, he represented the Finland men's national ice hockey team, and was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 2016.

Peltonen started playing hockey with Etelä-Vantaan Urheilijat (EVU), and moved to HIFK when he was ten years old.

[2] The following year, Peltonen scored 13 goals and 37 points in 46 games with HIFK winning the Jarmo Wasama memorial trophy as the best rookie of the season.

He also played 29 regular season games for Sharks' IHL affiliate Kansas City Blades,[6] scoring 18 points.

After two years in the NHL, Peltonen returned to Europe to play for Västra Frölunda HC of Swedish Elitserien.

In his first season with the team, he scored career-high 28 goals, 44 assists and 72 points in only 48 games, winning the title of league's best pointman.

[6] The great three seasons with Lugano gave Peltonen an opportunity to return to NHL, this time for Florida Panthers.

[10] Peltonen stayed with the Panthers for one more season, but then moved to Kontinental Hockey League to play for HC Dinamo Minsk, where he was once again the captain of his team.

After only one season in KHL Peltonen returned for his old franchise HIFK with a two-year contract in 2010,[11][12] and was named as team's captain.

[6] In the 1998 Winter Olympics Peltonen was replaced with Finnish NHL-star Teemu Selänne on the first line of Finland.

However, Selänne was injured before the bronze medal game, and Peltonen once again showed his skills with Koivu and Lehtinen, scoring the game-winning goal against Canada.

He was also named assistant coach of Finland’s national team, serving under Kari Jalonen[22] at the 2015 and 2016 World Championships[23] and during the 2014–15 and 2015-16 Euro Hockey Tour.

[24] In April 2016, Peltonen signed with SC Bern of Switzerland, where he served as assistant coach, again under Jalonen.

Peltonen left the club at the conclusion of the 2017-18 campaign and took over the head coaching job at Lausanne HC.