“I was watching a Sidney Crosby movie about when he was young and how he was working hard every day and getting better — that’s what I wanted to do too,” Levin said, referring to the Pittsburgh Penguins star.

When he was 13, Levin persuaded his parents to allow him to move to the Toronto suburb of Richmond Hill to live with an aunt and uncle and play competitive ice hockey.

“It was really hard for my parents, especially for my mom,” Levin said. “The first time I came to them, I was around 10 years old and asked if I could move, but they said not yet because I was young. Then I came to them three years later and asked them, told them I’m a man now, can I do it? They said, ‘Yeah, we can try it.’ ”

Levin enrolled at the Hill Academy, a private high school focused on student-athletes in Concord, Ontario. Under the tutelage of Lindsay Hofford, the academy’s hockey director, and others, Levin began the transition from roller skates to ice skates.

“I saw him and I go, ‘Oh, my God, this guy just started playing hockey — he’s this good?’ ” Hofford said. “I really kind of hit it off with him because I respected the fact that he had kind of thrown everything he had on the line to become a hockey player.”

Although Levin had never played organized ice hockey, Hofford could see the raw talent.

“Some of the roller hockey transferred right over to the ice hockey,” Hofford said. “And obviously, he’s a real good athlete: His dad was a professional soccer player, so it’s not like the guy can’t walk and chew gum at the same time. He really picked up the skating quickly.”