Florida launched the Goaltending Excellence Department in 2020
During the Florida Panthers Development Camp earlier this month, goaltending was constantly under the microscope.
Not from the front office or development staff, but from fellow members of the goalie union.
The young tendies at dev camp were under the watchful eye of the Goaltending Excellence Department, with a handful of goalies on and off the ice watching and analyzing each of the six prospects over the course of the week.
“The amount of guys that are out here just for goalies specifically is awesome,” said Datrmouth Class of 2026 goaltender Cooper Black. “I know a lot of times at other dev camps and stuff like that, it might have like three guys, but you've literally got the entire department here for goaltending, so I feel like they're really here to help us get better and to help us improve.”
“It's helped me a lot,” added University of New Hampshire goalie and Panthers 2022 sixth-round pick Tyler Muszelik. “I think having the special goalie department is pretty cool and having so many guys to help support me and to learn from. Obviously Lu and his brother, it's been great having them on the ice and getting some advice from them been really helpful, especially throughout my first year of college.”
Yes, the Luongo brothers, Roberto and Leo, are cornerstones of the department, with years of playing and coaching experience between them.
The insightful knowledge from guys like François Allaire, Robb Tallas and the Luongos is invaluable to these young netminders.
“Back home, I had a poster of him on my wall in my room, so it was kind of impressive for me to talk with him,” said Swiss goaltender Ludovic Waeber, who signed a one-year entry-level deal with Florida last month. “When I had the first Zoom call with Leo, Francois Allaire and Roberto, it was a big deal. I used to go Francois Allaire's training camp in Verbier, in Switzerland, so I knew about the man and his philosophy in goaltending, so it played a big role.”
Regardless of age, playing level or experience, goalies know goalies.
The Panthers having such an amazing collection of goaltending excellence, the wealth of knowledge they can bestow upon the young tendies is second to none.
That’s why it’s no small deal when the Cats bring the entire department under one roof.
“I think just having Lu around for these goalies and just to see Lu here every day is an eye opener for them, probably culture shock,” said Panthers Director of Player Personnel Bryan McCabe. “We're lucky enough to have the whole goalie department in, which is rare. Lu and Leo had their whole staff in this week and got to spend some really good, quality time with all the young goaltenders and did a ton of extra work before practice and stuff, so I'm sure these guys are going home with a lot of stuff to build on.”
For his part, Luongo takes a lot of pride and enjoyment from his work with the young goaltenders.
It wasn’t that long ago when he was a young, wide-eyed goalie trying to become a pro.
Now he’s paying it forward, much to the delight of the prospects who grew up watching Luongo.
“It's fun for me too, because I always bring myself to when I was that age, and that's how I relate to them,” Luongo explained. “For example, (Olof) Glifford…he just got drafted, he's here, 18 years old. I bring myself back to The Island when I first got there, eyes wide open and excited and nervous, so I know what he's going through. I’m really able to help them out, more so with that kind of stuff, than maybe the technical aspect, that's what the coaches are there for. I’m more of a mental, experience and just mindset type of guy, and leave the coaching to the coaches.”
Glifford, who Florida selected in the fifth-round of the NHL Draft in Nashville last month, didn’t try to downplay how cool it was to speak with Luongo during the process.
“It was amazing,” said Glifford. “From the first time when he called me like one week before the draft, I was like, this is crazy. So yeah, that was awesome.”
For Luongo and the department, development camp is a great opportunity to get up close and personal with the goalies they’ve been studying, analyzing and working with, in some cases, for several years.
“It's a little bit more exciting for us because we're building our own kind of little thing, our own team, I would say,” Luongo said. “So now that we have a few of them on the ice at the same time, it's more exciting for us to be here and watch these guys play and see how they develop and how they play throughout the year and keep improving.”