The Blackhawks’ early-season problems have not all come from the skaters in front of Spencer Knight. In fact, one of the more surprising issues in Chicago’s rough start has shown up in the crease, where Knight has been unable to settle in the way the team needs.
Chicago has only two wins through the opening stretch of the 2026-27 season, even with Patrick Kane back and a group of young players expected to push the team forward. The Blackhawks did get a boost Tuesday night (Oct. 13) when captain Connor Bedard made his season debut, and they beat Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-3. Knight earned his second win of the year in that game, stopping 24 of 27 shots for an .889 save percentage, his third-best mark of the season.
But the bigger picture is less encouraging. Through five games, Knight has finished above .900 in save percentage only once, when he posted a .926 mark in Chicago’s first win of the season, a 4-2 victory over the St.
Louis Blues. That kind of inconsistency is what jumps out when you dig into the EDGE numbers from NHL.com.
The raw season stats tell the same story. Knight enters this stretch with a 3.64 goals-against average and an .885 save percentage, both well below what he’s shown over his career. In 155 NHL games split between Florida and Chicago, the former first-round pick taken 13th overall by the Panthers in the 2019 Draft has a 70-61-20 record with eight shutouts, along with career averages of a 2.86 GAA and .903 SV%.
Last season, he opened with a much cleaner five-game run: a 2-2-1 record, 2.00 GAA and .937 SV%, with only one game below .900, a 3-2 loss to the Montreal Canadiens. This year has been a different story.
The most striking issue has been in mid-range chances. According to EDGE, Knight is sitting at a .780 mid-range save percentage, nearly 100 points under the NHL average of .878.
Before the win over Pittsburgh, that number was below .700, so the Penguins game gave him a needed lift. Even so, he’s still below the 50th percentile in that category, and that remains a clear trouble spot for both Knight and the Blackhawks.
His overall .885 save percentage is also a shade behind the league average of .891. On the other hand, Knight has been better on high-danger chances, where he owns a .836 save percentage compared with the NHL average of .809. Among goalies with at least two games played, he ranks in the 67th percentile for EDGE statistics, including that high-danger mark.
For context, Knight finished last season with a .902 save percentage, good for the 66th percentile and six points above the league average of .896. He posted a .847 high-danger save percentage, well above the league’s .811 average, and a .869 mid-range save percentage, which was better than his current number but still below the NHL average of .884.
Five games is still a tiny sample, and there’s time for the numbers to move. But right now, Knight is not giving Chicago the steady start it needs, and the slot area has been the biggest red flag.
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