After a year in Sioux City, Pacioretty went to the University of Michigan, where one of his old teammates saw his game take off.

“He was always one of the better players and always one of the bigger guys, and he used that to his advantage,” said St. Louis Blues defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk, who won a national championship alongside Pacioretty on the Mid-Fairfield Blues’ 16-and-under team in 2005. “But he got to the college level, and I started to see him turn into this elite player and someone who bloomed and came out of nowhere.”

As he grew older, Pacioretty grew into his body and became bigger and stronger. While playing in the American Hockey League in 2010, his teammates noticed his impressive shot and pushed him to use it more.

“I started watching goal scorers and their tendencies and had more of a shot-first mentality, and it took off from there,” said Pacioretty, now listed at 6-foot-2 and 213 pounds.

He scored a goal in his first N.H.L. game on Jan. 2, 2009, against the Devils, but he did not stick in the N.H.L. until Montreal noticed his budding goal-scoring prowess. He was called up midway through the 2010-11 season and scored 14 goals in 37 games. But he sustained a concussion and a fractured vertebra on a questionable check from Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara, which forced Pacioretty to miss that season’s final 15 games.

But he has rebounded, posting three seasons of 30 goals in his last four in the N.H.L., falling short only in the lockout-shortened 2012-13 campaign. After scoring an empty-net goal in Sunday’s victory over the Islanders, Pacioretty is on pace for 41 goals this season, which would be a career high.

“He has one of the quickest releases, and it’s hard to guard that,” Shattenkirk said. “When he realized he had that weapon, he started to find ways to get himself in a shooting position, and when he does that, he doesn’t need much time and space.”