For a minute, at least.

"This deal gives us a chance to be a champion," Murray asserted matter-of-factly after sending forwards Mark Parrish and Oleg Kvasha to the New York Islanders in exchange for Luongo and center Olli Jokinen. "Year after year the message is pretty clear, you have to have great goaltending to win. (Luongo) is going to be an awfully good goaltender."

Roberto Luongo is one of hockey's most-talked about young talents.(Allsport)

So hockey people have been saying for several years. They continue to say it even now, despite Luongo's difficult debut campaign with the Panthers, admittedly a team that has done little to help a goaltender flourish.

"I know there's big expectations for me from fans and I have big expectations for myself," Luongo told SportsLine.com. "I have a lot of work to do to achieve those standards, and that's what I'm aspiring to do every time I step out on the ice."

Luongo, 21, hasn't played badly in his first full NHL season, posting a respectable 2.78 goals-against average and a .905 save percentage, even though he needed until Thanksgiving weekend to record his psychologically-important first win in a Florida uniform.

Of course, that's largely due to offensive ineptitude by the Panthers, who have scored only 18 times in Luongo's 12 starts. In fact, Luongo recorded his first shutout of the season before his first win, a 0-0 tie in Minnesota against the expansion Wild.

"It's been tough and it would be nice to have some wins on the board," Luongo conceded. "But as a team, we're starting to get better lately and the wins will come. What happens later in the season is more important than what has happened so far."

Precisely what Billy Smith, the Panthers goaltending coach, believes. Smith says that Luongo will get to develop at his own pace because the team has the luxury of having an established veteran goalie who can carry the load.

"To me, we've got the perfect thing with Trevor Kidd, who's (28), and a 21-year-old, " said the Hall of Fame former Islanders goaltender. "Luongo will be brought along, but it's the type of thing that's not going to happen overnight. Yeah, we push him a little bit, but there's a lot to work with. He's got unbelievable potential."

Which is why Luongo, a butterfly-style goaltender who Smith says moves his feet well and is "great" at playing angles, became the highest-drafted goalie ever when the Islanders made him the fourth-overall pick in 1997. He was coming off an outstanding season in the goalie factory known as the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, and scouts described him as a future "franchise goaltender," while comparing him to some locals who came before him, guys by the name of Patrick Roy and Martin Brodeur.

Luongo did not sign with New York after the draft. Instead, the six-foot-three, 198-pound Montrealer, who grew up idolizing Edmonton's Grant Fuhr -- "I was always fascinated by the glove saves he made, that's what attracted me to this position" -- returned to junior for two more seasons. He did nothing to diminish his reputation by the time he arrived at New York's training camp in 1999, ready, he thought to make the jump directly from junior. He lasted until the final day of camp when he was told by a reporter that Islanders GM Mike Milbury was sending him to the AHL.

"It was the first I heard about it and I didn't appreciate it," he said.

Luongo was recalled in November and made a spectacular 43-save debut in a 2-1 win over Boston. He remained on Long Island for most of the season, but was sent down in March, a move that prevented him from appearing in at least 25 games, the mark that would have triggered an $800,000 bonus clause in his contract.

It was another thing he didn't appreciate, but it was not something he believed was sewing the seeds of his departure from the team that drafted him. Luongo found out differently when he was traded and the Islanders turned around to select college goaltender Rick DiPietro with the first overall pick last June.

Today, he says, all the bitterness behind him.

"That's the way hockey is these days, not too many players play their whole careers with one team," he said. "As far as I'm concerned, it's over with.

" I'm with the Panthers and I love it down here. This is where my future is and I'm going to do everything I can to make sure it's a good one."