Blackhawks goalie Spencer Knight’s breakout was, from a long-term perspective, arguably the best and most important thing that happened around the organization last season.
Can he repeat it?
Most fans seem to be taking it for granted that he will, because there’s no reason to believe he won’t. Knight was long forecast to become one of the league’s best goalies one day, and at age 25, he’s just entering his prime.
He’s extremely technically sound, and that — combined with his overall athleticism and lower-body flexibility and explosiveness — allows him to excel at making high-danger saves in particular. That pattern dates back to his Panthers tenure.
He’s also disciplined off the ice, wowing teammates with a relentless pursuit of strategies to maximize his nutrition, rest and recovery. He checks every box that an elite goalie should check.
But goaltending is difficult, and aside from a few ultra-elite goalies, goalie performance tends to fluctuate significantly from year to year. In that way, goalies are more like MLB relief pitchers than their NHL forward and defensemen teammates.
Knight bailed out the Hawks’ leaky defense and opened eyes around the league with a +10.5 GSAA last season (per Natural Stat Trick), which essentially means he allowed 10.5 fewer goals against than an average goalie facing the same quantity and quality of shots would. He was one of 17 goalies who posted GSAAs over 10.
That doesn’t guarantee he’ll remain in that statistical upper tier again this season, though. In fact, looking through recent history, the odds are he won’t.
Of the 14 goalies who posted GSAAs over 10 in 2024-25, only five did so again in 2025-26: Andrei Vasilevskiy (Lightning), Filip Gustavsson (Wild), Jet Greaves (Blue Jackets), Logan Thompson (Capitals) and Ilya Sorokin (Islanders).
Five others posted GSAAs between 0 and 10, and four posted negative GSAAs, meaning they were below-league-average goalies.
The numbers are even bleaker for the 17 goalies who posted GSAAs over 10 in 2023-24. Only three did so again in 2024-25, and only eight — less than half — posted positive GSAAs at all.
Sabres goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen is one cautionary tale worth highlighting. As a 24-year-old handling a full starters’ workload for the first time in 2023-24, he broke out with a .910 save percentage and +10.1 GSAA.
But in 2024-25, Luukkonen plummeted to an .887 save percentage and minus-19.9 GSAA, the second-worst mark in the entire league. He bounced back again last season with a .909 save percentage and +11.9 GSAA, but that was in a tandem role, with veteran Alex Lyon matching him in starts.
Could Knight potentially follow a Luukkonen-like roller coaster?
Or is Knight poised to establish himself in the ultra-elite tier alongside guys like Igor Shesterkin? The Rangers’ backstop is one of his role models, and they have some traits in common.
The Hawks will obviously hope for the Shesterkin outcome, but with goalies, you never know.
Knight himself, naturally, isn’t worrying about it. He’s coming off a pleasant summer at home in Connecticut, working with trainer Ben Prentiss. He connected Hawks rookie forward Roman Kantserov with Prentiss, too.
On Thursday at training camp, Knight mentioned a mantra Hawks coach Jeff Blashill often repeats to the team: “Don’t be afraid to make a play or make a mistake.”
“It might be hard for someone…in the stands to realize, but [goalies] have to make a play, too,” Knight said. “There’s a way I want to stop, [or] I want to get a certain depth.
“In a way, that’s all I’m trying to do: Make the play and not be afraid to make a mistake. In goaltending, it’s obviously very black-or-white, but that’s why I try to be a good self-evaluator and focus on [moving] my game in the right direction.”
Spencer Knight had Roman Kantserov over for dinner in Connecticut this summer, then they walked down to an ice cream shop by the water.
“He said, ‘Can I get it?’ I’m like, ‘Sure.’”
“He’s very charismatic, works hard and a guy that you want to be around… He’s someone I think…
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) September 17, 2026