The Blackhawks didn’t get the kind of leap they wanted in 2025-26, but they did get one major answer in goal. Spencer Knight stepped into the No. 1 job and gave Chicago a real foundation, even as the team finished 31st in the league at 29-39-14 for 72 points.
For Knight, the numbers tell the story of a heavy lift: 19-25-11 in 55 games, a .902 save percentage, a 2.82 goals-against average and three shutouts. He also set career highs in games played, wins and shutouts, and finished fourth in the NHL with 1,428 saves and 1,583 shots against.
That kind of workload would test any goaltender. Doing it behind a young, still-developing roster made it even more demanding.
But Knight handled it with the steady presence Chicago needed. Night after night, he gave the Blackhawks a chance, making the saves that had to be made and settling things down in front of a team that was still learning on the fly.
That was enough to earn him the club’s Most Valuable Player honor for the season.
Chicago acquired Knight as part of the Seth Jones trade after he had been serving as a backup behind Sergei Bobrovsky with the Florida Panthers. The Blackhawks also locked him into a new contract extension before the season began, with the deal set to run through the 2028-29 season and carry a $5.83 million cap hit once it kicks in in 2026-27.
What stood out beyond the stat line was how he carried himself. Knight stayed calm, kept his voice up on the ice and worked well with the defense in front of him.
Louis Crevier pointed to that communication after a game on Dec. 10, saying, “…he’s really good, and he talks to the D-squad too. So it’s makes it easier for us to make plays.”
Jeff Blashill made a similar point before a game on Jan. 15, explaining how Knight’s temperament mattered for a young group dealing with the usual swings of a developing season:
Any time you have the emotional ups and downs and highs and lows that we’re going to have with a with a young team and a young defensive corps; as the goaltender, being able to just stay calm in the face of adversity is really important. And I think it’s important for all of us, but there’s certain positions where it really can show up, and he’s consistently done that.
He hasn’t ever gotten too emotionally high, too emotionally low. He’s never let frustration become a big piece of what he’s about.
He just kind has a really good attitude, kind of like our team has, I think, a lot of nights of learning from the game before moving on. And he exemplifies that.
At 25, Knight is already one of the older players on a very young Blackhawks roster, and he’s leaned into that role. He has talked openly about the process of winning, learning and growing together, and that attitude has fit the room.
There was a little regression late in the season, which likely had something to do with the workload catching up to him. Even so, Knight said after exit interviews on Apr. 16 that he’s preparing for more:
I’m gonna have to play more at some point, right? You know, you play 50-60 (games) in the regular season.
You’re gonna play 70-80 if you play playoffs, which is what we’re gonna try to do at some point. So I felt fine.
Thought my game felt good. Just grew, and just keep learning how to make better reads, getting all the situations, different kinds of games, different types of pressure.
Playing from behind, playing with the lead. I think that obviously has a factor in the reads you make, how you react.
So I think that was all really good.
For all the praise, the final grade lands at B+. That’s a strong mark, but it also leaves room for more.
Knight looked like the backbone of the Blackhawks in his first season as the clear starter, and the sense here is that he’s still only getting started. As he put it, “The sun rises the next day; you just go back to battle.”
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