When Roberto Luongo was brought back to the Florida Panthers at the 2014 NHL Trade Deadline, fans in South Florida rejoiced at his return to the organization. The Panthers hadn’t had an NHL caliber starting goaltender for several seasons, and Luongo had the potential to provide a stable and consistent presence in goal for a team that was going to be young and developing.

Sure enough, during the 2014-2015 season, Luongo was a steady presence in goal for a blue line that featured several players under the age of 25 (Aaron Ekblad, Dmitry Kulikov, Erik Gudbranson, Alex Petrovic, Dylan Olsen). The veteran net minder posted a .921% save percentage in all situations, a drastic improvement from the .909% SV% the Cats had seen from their starting net minder the year before.

The 36-year-old has picked up right where he left off, and through seven games in 2015-2016, is posting a .939% SV% in all situations, and has helped the Panthers jump out to a 5-3-1 start. Out of team starters, Luongo ranks 5th in save percentage, and he has given the Cats a chance to win every game he’s started.

5. Luongo battles through traffic to pick up this slapper, and makes a nice glove save. #FLAPanthers #SixSaves pic.twitter.com/LOft0TQabE — Greg Balloch (@GregBalloch) October 13, 2015

The dominance of Luongo is most obvious at 5 on 5, where the veteran net minder has a .959 SV%, and an adjusted save percentage of .963%. At even strength, Luongo has been so difficult to beat that he’s atop the league leaderboard in terms of expected save percentage (more information on save percentage can be found here). When comparing actual save percentage to expected save percentage so far, no one has been better at stopping more pucks than expected than Roberto Luongo.

xSV% Stats through 2015-10-28 pic.twitter.com/uoGiH1vmqo — DTM About Heart (@DTMAboutHeart) October 28, 2015

Luongo is starting to creep up there in terms of age, as most goalies start to experience decline in play by the age of 30. Seeing as Luongo is now 36, one would expect his play to decline, but he appears to have gotten better.

1. Luongo continues his strong start to the season, making a bunch of saves on this sequence. #FLAPanthers #SixSaves pic.twitter.com/BniaJWjVFi — Greg Balloch (@GregBalloch) October 13, 2015

The Cats don’t need their net minder to lead the league in save percentage, or win the Vezina Trophy, but they do need at least league average save percentage. Luongo has been providing much more than that so far, and it’s not a stretch to say he’s been the team’s MVP up to this point.

What do you think about Roberto Luongo’s hot start? Let us know in the comments!