Blackhawks’ Spencer Knight was once a top NHL prospect – now, he’s living up to expectations

Oct 22, 2025, 10:00 EDTUpdated: Oct 21, 2025, 15:51 EDT

Blackhawks’ Spencer Knight was once a top NHL prospect – now, he’s living up to expectations

Credit: Matt Marton-Imagn Images

It would have been easy to give up on Spencer Knight.

Once viewed as the top goaltending prospect in the world, the 2019 first-round pick immediately found himself buried in Florida’s depth chart less than a week after getting drafted thanks to the signing of Sergei Bobrovsky. Mix in a rushed development path, inconsistency and a break from the sport altogether, and Knight looked like a shell of what many expected him to be.

That was, of course, until his trade to the Chicago Blackhawks.

Knight is 2-2-1 with an impressive surface-level save percentage of .937. He has at least a .919 save percentage in four of the five starts, with his 38-save performance against Anaheim over the weekend being his best showing for the Hawks to date.

Five games is a small sample size – the season isn’t even a month old. But Knight might be the early season front-runner for the Vezina Trophy. Bold claim, for sure, but with a league-leading 12.4 goals saved above expected at all strengths and a second-place 5.81 GSAx at 5-on-5, Knight is looking like the confident, dominant goaltender so many hoped he’d become.

In fact, Knight is near the top of just about every major advanced stat. His 5-on-5 high-danger save percentage is sixth, his HD goals-saved above average is fourth (1.87), and his overall 5-on-5 GSAA is second at 4.71. His 45 high-danger saves are good for first, too.

Again, it’s a small sample size. But this is the type of on-ice success so many in the sport expected from him.

After winning Hockey East Player of the Year in 2021 (and finishing as a Hobey Baker Award finalist as one of the top college players), Knight turned pro. He finished the 2020-21 season with a 4-0-0 record with the Panthers – a promising start. He then did something very few college goaltenders ever do: go straight into NHL duty a year after leaving school. But there’s a reason why it’s rare – even though goalies play most of the games during a year, it’s still a massive uptick in the quality of shooters, and the overall grind can be daunting.

Spencer Knight has been Elite @RonoAnalyst pic.twitter.com/gUWC5Fh65w

— The Prospect Don (@TheProspectDon) October 20, 2025

Acquired from Florida ahead of the 2025 NHL Trade Deadline, Knight missed out on the opportunity to win the Stanley Cup a few months later. But in doing so, he was able to start forging his own path forward with a franchise with nowhere to go but up. Knight had his ups and downs with Chicago in his 15 games played last year, and his advanced numbers weren’t special. But you saw signs of someone capable of stealing a game or two.

And that’s huge for the team’s future. A year ago, the Blackhawks had one of the best goaltending prospect duos in Adam Gajan and Drew Commesso. But the general consensus is that Gajan took steps backward, while Commesso didn’t establish himself as a true future NHL starter.

So with the team in full rebuild mode, they needed to find their guy. They sent out defenseman Seth Jones, who was a polarizing figure in the Windy City. In exchange, they took a chance on a goaltender that, had he remained in Florida, would have had to stay a backup for at least another season with Sergei Bobrovsky still in town.

The move made sense for both sides; Jones won the Cup, and Knight gets to prove himself as a No. 1.

With Chicago unlikely to make the playoffs again this year, Knight’s job is simple: get comfortable taking the bulk of the starts and learn from his mistakes. A bad stretch isn’t the end of the world – that’s to be expected in Chicago this season. It doesn’t hurt that backup Arvid Soderblom is fully capable of winning big games, too. But the net, at least for now, seems to be Knight’s.

Not much has changed in Knight’s actual playing style over the past three years. But you can tell he’s more confident – and confidence is everything for a goaltender. When your coach believes in you, you believe in yourself. And when you believe in yourself, you stop overthinking everything. That’s what makes the best goalies stand out, and that confidence during his college days made Knight an absolute force.

Positionally, Knight has always been a high-end keeper. He has good size at 6-foot-3, he’s technically sound and thinks the game at such a high level. That means reading dangerous plays and reacting accordingly. Early on in his NHL career, Knight was prone to overreacting to shots, especially laterally. He’s much calmer and relaxed now.

The Blackhawks definitely believe in the 24-year-old. Knight is in the final season of his three-year deal that pays $4.5 million per campaign. For the most part, he didn’t live up to the billing. But after signing a three-year extension with an $5.83 million AAV, it could end up being a bargain.

Only time will tell if that’s true. Right now, though, Hawks fans are loving every second of Knight’s hot start. There hasn’t been much to cheer for in quite some time. That’s especially true in net, with Corey Crawford being the last real long-term starter the team had from more than half a decade ago.

Even some of the top young goaltenders take some time. It’s the sport’s most volatile position. But sometimes, patience pays off.

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Blackhawks’ Spencer Knight was once a top NHL prospect – now, he’s living up to expectations

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