PITTSBURGH — Joe Pavelski’s profile has grown quite a bit since he became the Sharks’ captain in October. He was named an All-Star for the first time and with a push from Twitter — which he joined two months ago — became a finalist for the cover of the video game NHL 17.

Being in the Stanley Cup Final will raise even more awareness.

The Sharks will get unprecedented coverage in the coming days and weeks in their first Cup Final, which begins Monday against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Pavelski will be front and center, as his performance so far in the postseason has made him a favorite to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoff MVP.

In 18 games, Pavelski has a league-best 13 goals, including two in a pivotal Game 5 win over the St. Louis Blues in the Western Conference final.

“He’s been huge,” Sharks forward Patrick Marleau said before Game 6. “He’s doing all the little things. You guys look at goal scoring and the points, but for us he does all those little things — blocks shots, helps out, wins battles.”

This is not new for Pavelski. But because the Sharks have never made it to a Stanley Cup Final — coupled with the fact that they are a West Coast team — he’s never seemed to get a ton of widespread recognition.

Pavelski is one of the most prolific North American-born goal scorer in the NHL over the past three seasons with 116, trailing just Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals with his 154 goals. His 227 points over that same span is sixth best among all skaters, and second only to Patrick Kane (239) among American players.

He won a Silver Medal with Team USA at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and could very well find himself wearing a letter for the Americans at the World Cup of Hockey this fall in Toronto.

“I think he deserves more recognition than he probably gets,” Sharks forward Joel Ward said Friday. “Stuff like (the video game cover) is pretty cool for him. I think it was really cool for him to be a part of the All-Star game with his son. It’s well-deserved.”

Ward added that if Pavelski played in the Eastern time zone, like Ovechkin or the Penguins’ Sidney Crosby, “He’d be on video games, Wheaties boxes, pop cans, soda bottles.”

Right now, the Sharks are OK with Pavelski just being one of the faces of their franchise.

Throughout his career, Pavelski has helped to set the compete level for the Sharks. Listed at 5-foot-11 and 190 pounds, Pavelski’s one of the smaller players on the roster. But his hockey sense, work ethic and remarkable hand-eye coordination helped land him where he is today.”When you play hard and play the system to a tee,” Marleau said of Pavelski, “he’s doing what the coach wants and what he expects. When your leaders do that, it’s easy to follow them.”

Dainius Zubrus had not met Pavelski before he joined the Sharks in November. He played his entire career in the Eastern Conference, largely with the New Jersey Devils, and said it can be tough to fully appreciate how good players in the west are without staying up late.

“Thornton is a perfect example of that, too,” Zubrus said. “As great of a player as he is and as good as a season as he’s had, nobody talks that much about him. Maybe now they’ll talk about him more, but that’s because there are no other teams left.

“Same thing goes with Pavs.”

Pavelski knows he’ll face a few more reporters and have a few more cameras in front of him this week than ever before. He says he’s ready for his close-up.

“There’s no real way to deal with it,” Pavelski said of the extra attention. “Just answer the questions and understand that any success you’ve had, you’ve worked hard for.”

For more on the Sharks, see the Working the Corners blog at blogs.mercurynews.com/sharks. Follow Curtis Pashelka on Twitter at twitter.com/CurtisPashelka.