MISSISSAUGA, Ontario — Liam Kirk occasionally takes a 15-minute stroll from Peterborough Memorial Centre to The UK Shoppe in search of a taste of home. Kirk, 18, is 3,400 miles away from his family in Maltby, England, playing ice hockey — a sport many of his friends teased him about while growing up.

In June, the Arizona Coyotes used a seventh-round pick to select Kirk, making him the first player born and trained in England to be chosen in the N.H.L. draft.

Now Kirk finds himself in Peterborough, Ontario, a suburb 87 miles northeast of Toronto, playing for the Ontario Hockey League’s Petes in the hopes of adapting to the smaller rink and faster style of the North American game and developing enough to earn a contract from the Coyotes.

“The adjustments have been a little difficult,” said Kirk, who had only two goals in his first 23 games. “Obviously, moving to a new country, away from your family and stuff like that. It’s the best junior league in the world, still got to adjust to that.”