KINGSTON - Former NHL player Mike Danton was granted full parole and will likely be released from a minimum security prison next week.

And he told a National Parole board that it was his biological father, Steve Jefferson, who was the target of his murder-for-hire plot, and not his former agent, David Frost, as had been speculated.

He also said he wants to return to the NHL.

The National Parole Board took just 10 minutes to make its decision, after a two-hour hearing with Danton Friday morning.

"I want the opportunity to return to a normal life," Danton said in his final statement to the board.

As a condition of his release, Danton is probited contact with Jefferson and must not have face-to-face contact with Frost unless pre-approved by his parole officer. He must also refrain from alchohol and drug use and continue counselling.

Danton pleaded guilty in 2004 in a St. Louis court to trying to hire a contract killer. Prosecutors argued that Frost, who coached Danton in junior hockey before becoming his agent, was the intended target.

But Danton denied that in his hearing.

"He was not my intended victim - no. He was the official target of the crime, but he wasn't the intended target. He wasn't the person I believed was coming down from Canada to get me," Danton told the board.

The now 28-year-old said he was suffering from paranoia that someone was going to kill him and Frost in the spring of 2004. He never acknowledged it officially for the parole panel, but it is clear Danton was implying that his father was the threat to him.

At one point, panel member Simonne Ferguson asked Danton, "Would you have killed your father yourself?"

"I don't think so," Danton said. "I didn't want to do it myself. The easiest way was to get someone else to do it."

Danton had been eligible for parole since March, when he was transferred back to Canada to serve the rest of his term at the Pittsburgh Institution, a minimum-security correctional facility about 20 km northeast of downtown Kingston. He had served a little more than four years in prison in the United States.

Friday's session was originally to have taken place month, but his August 28th hearing was postponed after the board called for a fresh psychological assessment. In that assessment, Danton was deemed a low-risk for re integration into society. Doctors concluded that he did not suffer from any mental illness and that he was an excellent candidate for full parole.

Danton says he is in a much better mental state now, than he was five years ago. He no longer relies on Frost to manage every aspect of his life.

"I've learned a lot about myself. And I know this sounds strange to say, but I have no regrets," Danton said.

Danton, who was arrested when he was a member of the St. Louis Blues in 2004, says he would like to return to the NHL - although that is a longshot at best. Not only has he been removed from the game for more than five years, but he would not be allowed to leave Canada until Jan. 21, 2011, when his expiry of warrant is finished.

"I'm a far better person than I was. Given the opportunity, I'd like to play somewhere at some point," said Danton, who acknowledged a return to the NHL is probably out of his grasp.