The Panthers had high hopes for rookie Anton Lundell. He’s exceeding them through 4 games

To be a fly on the wall around the breakfast table at Aleksander Barkov’s Boca Raton home...

It would help to speak Finnish, for sure, but a Finnish-speaking fly would probably come away from each morning with some secrets about how to be a great two-way center.

Those mornings with Barkov certainly haven’t hurt Anton Lundell, who has been living with the star center, and has four points in his first four NHL games and ranks third in the league among forwards in short-handed time on ice as a fixture on the Florida Panthers’ top penalty-kill unit.

“He’s got a good mentor in Barky,’’ coach Joel Quenneville said Wednesday. “He has him prepare breakfast and then starts the day with him, and he keeps going. He gets to follow the perfect pro.”

As the Panthers (4-0-0) have gotten off to the best start in franchise history and surged to the top of the league standings, Lundell has managed to even exceed Florida’s already-lofty expectations.

He’s tied for second on the team with four points. He ranks in the top five among Panther forwards in time on ice per game. He has been Florida’s best faceoff taker, among skaters averaging at least two per game, and, despite gaining an early reputation as a defensive player, he actually ranks sixth on the team in offensive point shares.

On Saturday, he’ll aim to keep up his torrential pace as the Panthers try to stay unbeaten against the Philadelphia Flyers (2-0-1) at 7 p.m. at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.

“I don’t think we anticipated that type of contribution to that level,” Quenneville said. “It’s been a nice addition to our team.”

Not that Florida didn’t expect anything from the 20-year-old, who was the No. 12 overall pick in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft. Quenneville stuck on the first penalty-kill unit in the very first game and trusted him to anchor the Panthers’ third line as center, giving him the nod over former Hart Memorial Trophy winner Joe Thornton.

His first two games were mainly defined by his special-teams efforts — he led Florida in short-handed time on ice in its season-opening overtime win against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Oct. 14 — as most 5-on-5 advanced metrics had him simply as a passable contributor. Across Lundell’s first two games, opponents generated more shots and more scoring chances than the Panthers when he was on the ice.

On Tuesday, Quenneville kicked forward Sam Reinhart down from the first line to the third and Lundell has taken off. All of his possession metrics were positive in the Panthers’ win against the Tampa Bay Lightning and he scored his first two points, including a crucial third-period goal, in Tampa.

In Florida’s 4-1 win against the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday, he played his best game yet. When Lundell was on the ice for 5-on-5, the Panthers had a 13-8 edge in Corsi — which totals all shot attempts, whether or not they require a save — and and a 5-3 edge in scoring chances. He dished out a secondary assist on Florida’s first goal in the first period and added an empty-net goal to seal the win with 1:13 left.

Of the Panthers’ five line combinations to log at least 10 minutes this year, the top two, in terms of expected goals percentage, both have Lundell at center.

“He doesn’t look like he’s a rookie,” goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky said Thursday. “He’s very smart. He looks like he plays an experienced game. In the penalty kill, he’s been great. He’s been great on the faceoffs. He’s been a great addition to our team and he’s got so much in front of him, as well.”

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Lundell always had a chance to be an X-factor for Florida. The Panthers changed so little from last year, when they lost in the first round of the 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs, and mostly trusted their internal development would let them take a step forward.

They made a handful of smaller additions — most notably, Reinhart — and hoped star defenseman Aaron Ekblad’s return to health would elevate them.

They also knew they had potentially two of the best rookies in the league with Lundell and goaltender Spencer Knight. Effectively, they were question marks, albeit uncertainties with massive upsides of they could quickly translate their past successes to the NHL. Lundell, who was an alternate captain for Finland when it won a silver medal at the 2021 IIHF World Championship in June, has done it so far.

“That kid is special,” Barkov said Thursday. “He was 19 at the time and he was leading his team from one victory to another. It was incredible and now he’s doing the same thing here. He’s taking those whole chances he’s getting and he’s crucial for us.”