Dhilan Paranjape played the 2023-24 season for Regis Jesuit High School and then began his junior hockey career last fall with the SIJHL’s Kenora Islanders.

Unfortunately, the Islanders franchise folded midway through the season, but the Denver native quickly found a new home with the USPHL’s Minnesota Mullets.

“I don’t have many connections, so me and my parents decided to put my stats from the SIJHL season onto the NCDC recruiting page,” said Paranjape. “Almost immediately, (Mullets coach-GM) Chris Walby reached out to me with the opportunity to join the team for the remainder of the season. At the time, my SIJHL team was still running, so I didn’t communicate much, but my parents did instead. When I learned about my team folding, I immediately contacted Chris, and he had me do all the paperwork needed. I was in Minnesota by the next day, and played from then on. The team seemed like they had a lot of games left in their season and being in a playoff spot was definitely a big reason I came down. After missing so many games due to cancellations and other issues in Kenora, all I wanted to do was play as many games as possible before the season ends.”

Paranjape added that being away from home this whole season wasn’t a struggle as it had been something he knew would inevitably happen.

“Leaving home wasn’t necessarily hard, but being in Canada was something I definitely did not expect,” said Paranjape. “At the start of the season, it was very nice up there, so it was easy to get around and know the guys on that team. Leaving Kenora was harder in retrospect. I was comfortable in my billet home, hoping to stay there until the end of the season. The end of Kenora was very chaotic, with games getting canceled and delayed due to organizational issues, and ice time for practices not being assured. Then packing up and leaving the next day after getting notified of the team folding was chaotic and very hard for both me and my billet.

“Of course, I’m a lot more used to the lifestyle and city life in Minneapolis, so I’ve gotten used to the environment here very quickly, and my teammates were very receiving of me when I came in, but I still miss Kenora.”

Last season back home with Regis Jesuit was a year Paranjape said was “a huge part of my life.”

“That season was one I’d say was very important to my hockey journey personally,” he said. “The connections I made with the kids on that team are inseparable. Winning that championship was an accumulation of three years of hard work for me and my teammates from the class of 2024, as we pretty much worked, ate, and took classes together for every year of high school at Regis. Beating Valor at the end was the cherry on top.

“Personally, I found a lot of growth in that season with my career, especially in confidence and blooming my skill to be ready for juniors. I definitely came as a late bloomer in terms of team impact, but I worked hard leading up to the season and never took my eyes off of my goal of winning that championship, which was shared among the team. I was very proud of getting to wear the ‘A’ that season as well.”

Growing up, hockey became second nature to Paranjape and it’s been that way for the last 14-15 years.

“I started playing hockey at four with my childhood best friend, but was the first to ever play hockey in my family,” Paranjape said. “Instead of the Avs, Denver’s NCAA D-I hockey team had a massive role in me wanting to play. My dad worked for the team as their sports doc for many years, so I got to watch them in my childhood and immediately wanted to start playing the sport, dreaming to play with Denver one day. Luckily, Denver is also my hometown, and we only lived a five-minute drive from the rink. That played a huge part in me playing for the Denver Jr. Pioneers youth hockey program.”

Once he first laced up the skates, there was no looking back for Paranjape.

“I started playing with the Jr. Pioneers, but nothing apart from my skating ever stood out,” he said. “I only ever slowly climbed the levels from C-level hockey at the start to A-level hockey by Pee Wee. It was when I went to Krivo in my second year of Pee Wee and first year of Bantam that I finally got to know the fundamentals and developed my skating skill even further. Andrei Krivokrasov was a huge influence in my career and he was a great mentor for anything I needed. From there, I played on Regis Jesuit’s varsity team sophomore year to senior year. Terry Ott and Dan Woodley supported my dreams heavily and did anything they could to help me reach juniors, while meeting George Gwozdecky has helped me find needed connections in the junior landscape, where I don’t actually have many connections built out for me.

“What I will remember most about playing hockey in Colorado is definitely always being an underdog. I started my career from the bottom, basically just a level above house-league hockey, and grinded day in and day out to try to catch up to other very talented kids in my birth year who I got to know through camps, like Popovic’s summer camps, or through skills coaches. It was crushing sometimes, but I learned the value of grinding and just how much I loved the sport, which is a big part of my journey today.”

Moving forward, Paranjape has high expectations for himself, both on and off the ice.

“My short-term goal is to do very well in the playoffs with the Mullets and pad up my stats to move up to a higher-level league, which I hadn’t been able to roster in the last year,” said Paranjape. “I’m looking towards making an NAHL or NCDC roster, as my long-term goal has always been to play D-I college hockey. Though that’s a lofty goal in reality, I’m still working towards it every passing moment in hopes I can make a miracle happen. I never really had goals or ambitions for school, so I’d probably pursue a technical or business degree once I get to college and focus on making as much money as possible while young so I can live the rest of my life freely, which has always been my life goal.”

Photo/Paul Shepardson

— Matt Mackinder

(February 18, 2025)