For the first time in the Blackhawks’ 2025-26 player grade series, the spotlight lands on a goalie, and Spencer Knight is the one under the lens after his first season as Chicago’s full-time No. 1.
Knight handled a heavy load, setting a career high with 55 games played after previously topping out at 38. The 25-year-old finished with a 2.82 goals-against average, a .902 save percentage and 19 wins, while his 25 losses were also a career high. On a bad Blackhawks team, though, that record tells only part of the story.
There were rough patches, sure, but there were also stretches where Knight looked like he could take over a game on his own. He’s already being viewed as both the present and future in Chicago’s crease, and the trajectory points upward. A steadier, less chaotic schedule in 2026-27 should help, along with the natural adjustment that comes with carrying this kind of workload.
Blackhawks Cowboy handed Knight an A, calling him a veteran presence at just 25 and saying, “He is really good at playing goalie.” The early-season surge in Chicago was fueled almost entirely by Knight, who posted a .918 save percentage in October and a .910 mark in November.
Once the Hawks lost key defensive pieces like Connor Murphy, Jason Dickinson and Matt Grezlyk, Knight’s numbers began to dip. Even so, the impact he had on the season was impossible to miss.
Tony Marchese was a little more measured, giving Knight a B+ and saying he remains the club’s clear-cut No. 1 for the foreseeable future. He praised the goalie’s “absolutely phenomal” statistics and said there were only a few stretches where “a few little things could be cleaned up.”
Marchese also pointed to the Blackhawks’ shaky defense and said Knight was there to “save the day,” noting that the underlying numbers backed up how strong his season really was. He added that Knight would have earned an A+ if the workload hadn’t worn on him at times late in the year.
Knight’s new three-year extension begins next season, with an annual salary of just under $6 million. If he keeps building on what he showed in his first full season in Chicago, the Blackhawks could end up with one of the league’s best contracts on their hands.
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