The NHL Network’s latest top-10 goaltender list left out Spencer Knight, and for the Blackhawks, that omission lands somewhere between understandable and frustrating.
When the league rolled out its rankings Sunday night, the top of the board looked exactly like a heavyweight class should. Andrei Vasilevskiy of the Tampa Bay Lightning took the No. 1 spot, followed by Connor Hellebuyck of the Winnipeg Jets and Igor Shesterkin of the New York Rangers. Ilya Sorokin of the New York Islanders, Jeremy Swayman of the Boston Bruins, Logan Thompson of the Washington Capitals, and Jake Oettinger of the Dallas Stars filled out the next wave.
The real debate came at the back end of the list, where Dan Vladar of the Philadelphia Flyers, Jesper Wallstedt of the Minnesota Wild, and Jakub Dobes of the Montreal Canadiens rounded out the top 10. That’s where the scrutiny hit hardest, because several names were left waiting outside the door.
Knight was one of them, though his case wasn’t viewed as the biggest snub. That label went more clearly to Sergei Bobrovsky and Scott Wedgewood. Bobrovsky had already helped the Florida Panthers win back-to-back Stanley Cups before a rough 2025-26 season behind an injury-ravaged roster, while Wedgewood led the NHL in both goals-against average and save percentage this past season and finished tied for fourth in wins.
Knight’s resume didn’t come with that same level of established success, but his season still had real substance. In his first full year as an NHL starter, he was asked to anchor one of the league’s youngest and least experienced teams, and for a while he handled it extremely well. Over the first two months of the 2025-26 campaign, he sat near the top of the league in save percentage and goals-saved above expected.
Then the Blackhawks’ season changed fast. Connor Bedard and Frank Nazar both suffered significant injuries in December, and the bottom dropped out for the team and its goalie.
Knight finished with a 19-25-11 record, a 2.82 GAA, a .902 save percentage, and three shutouts in 55 starts. Those numbers don’t scream elite on their own, but they don’t tell the whole story either. He faced 30-plus shots a night and still gave Chicago a chance more often than not, and among goalies with at least 50 appearances, he ended up ninth in goals-saved above expected.
Chicago’s trade-deadline teardown made his job even tougher. After the team moved out its entire leadership group, including captain Nick Foligno and alternates Connor Murphy and Jason Dickinson, the roster got even younger. Knight had no control over that, but the results were brutal: he won just three of his final 14 starts after the calendar turned to March and allowed four or more goals seven times.
That’s why his exclusion from the top 10 feels more like a missed opportunity than a clean oversight. Knight didn’t get the kind of late-season runway Wallstedt and Dobes enjoyed with playoff-contending teams, and his sample was shaped by a collapsing situation around him. Even so, he showed enough to suggest he belongs in the conversation.
The 2019 first-round pick already looks like one of the league’s top young goaltenders. The next step is obvious: keep climbing until he’s simply one of the best, full stop. And if the Blackhawks can give him a more experienced, more competitive group in front of him in 2026-27, he may have a much better shot at landing on the NHL Network’s list in 2027.
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Spencer Knight Has A Chance To Change The Blackhawks Conversation
A fresh round of league chatter has only sharpened the spotlight on Chicagos young goaltending picture, even as Patrick Kane heads toward another season loaded with milestone watch. The Blackhawks still have plenty of reasons to stay focused on their own rebuild, but the conversation around how quickly the roster can turn competitive keeps circling back to whether the team can get more reliable play in net as the foundation for everything else.
Spencer Knight sits right in the middle of that discussion, even if the wider NHL conversation hasnt caught up to him yet. The NHL Networks list of the top 10 current goaltenders left him off entirely, which is the sort of omission that can sting and motivate at the same time. For Chicago, it adds another layer to a season in which Knight has a chance to reshape how the rest of the league views both his game and the Blackhawks direction. [Read more 🡒]
Blackhawks Fans Got An Early Read On Spencer Knights NHL Respect
NHL.coms early look at the leagues best goaltenders offered a familiar kind of respect for the usual names, with Andrei Vasilevskiy, Connor Hellebuyck and Igor Shesterkin occupying the top of the list heading into the 2026-27 season. For Blackhawks fans, the more interesting part was the absence that followed, because Spencer Knight was coming off a strong first year as a starting goalie and still found himself on the outside of that conversation.
It is the kind of ranking that does not change a teams plans, but it does sharpen the debate around how quickly a young goalie has earned his place among the NHLs elite. Knights play gave Chicago reason to believe it has a real foundation in net, even if the broader league view is still catching up, and the gap between those two perceptions is exactly where the next step of his career will be judged. [Read more 🡒]
Blackhawks Have Enough Talent Now The Pressure Is On
The Blackhawks have spent the rebuild phase collecting talent, and the conversation around the organization is starting to shift from patience to proof. With Patrick Kane back in the picture and Connor Bedard leading the next wave, the roster has the kind of star power that makes people around the league look twice, even as the team continues to sort through changes in special teams personnel and the rest of the supporting cast.
What comes next is less about whether the Blackhawks can add more pieces and more about when the whole thing has to start looking like a real team. The 2026-27 season is shaping up as the checkpoint, a year when progress will be measured against a Central Division that rarely gives anyone an easy path and against the expectation that playoff positioning should finally be in reach. [Read more 🡒]