Introduction to Spencer Knight
Yes, Blackhawks goalie Spencer Knight successfully found a place to live in Chicago that’s nowhere near any CTA train tracks. But yes, Knight’s friends at home in Connecticut — where he has spent most of the summer — also sufficiently ribbed him for his viral train quote from exit interviews in April: “I don’t know why they’re above ground and so loud all the time.” “They’re always like, ‘Oh, not the trains!’ ” Knight said this week. He’s sticking to his opinion, though. “[My mom and I] were in the West Loop for dinner, and there were three trains going by and a guy on his motorcycle revving his engine,” Knight said. “I’m like, ‘I can’t live in this. I need to be either 50 stories up or in an area that doesn’t have this.’ ”
Preparation for the Upcoming Season
With his housing situation sorted out, Knight, 24, has been able to focus on preparing for the upcoming season. He instantly has become one of the Hawks’ cornerstones, and his performance will have a big effect on how much the team improves. “Once [I got] over the initial shock of being traded, I was ecstatic to have landed in Chicago,” said Knight, who arrived from the Panthers in March in exchange for Seth Jones and a 2026 first-round pick. “Everyone who asks how it is, I tell them, ‘I love it. It just feels like hockey.’ You can feel the energy in the building, in the city. “What I’m really excited for this year is for us to . . . become better hockey players and become a better team. Us playing together for another year is just going to drive everyone closer as friends and teammates. We’re going to battle each other. I’ve got everyone else on the team’s back, I know they have mine, and we’re going to drive this in the right direction and get to a point where [we can say], ‘OK, we’re in this.’ “Once you see this team take off, things turn around fast. You saw that with Montreal last year.”
Knight has high hopes for this young Hawks team.
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Crucial Ingredient for the Hawks
The Need for a Strong Goalie
Before the Jones-for-Knight trade, goalie was probably the weakest position in the Hawks’ prospect pool. Drew Commesso is an intriguing piece, and his late-season surge in Rockford increased his stock after Knight’s arrival, but he’s not an elite prospect. Arvid Soderblom improved significantly last season and now has 86 games of NHL experience, but he’ll probably never be more than a backup. In Knight, the Hawks have a potential long-term franchise goalie. But now it’s up to him — with the help of Hawks goalie coach Jimmy Waite and longtime Connecticut-based trainers Ben Prentiss and Brian Elser — to reach that potential.
Knight’s Career Statistics
In his first 95 NHL games, he has been a roughly middle-of-the-pack goalie. His career save percentage is .904; the league average was .900 last season. His career GSAA (goals saved above average) is plus-0.8. His save percentage and GSAA dipped to .893 and minus-2.9, respectively, with the Hawks last season, but that was over a small 15-game sample. Talent-wise, however, he’s well ahead of the pack. He’s one of the most technically precise goalies to enter the league in some time, with outstanding technique, particularly his lower-body technique.
Changes in Knight’s Game
Stance Change
Most NHL players take one lengthy break immediately after their season ends, then gradually ramp up training in the summer. Knight prefers to take multiple short breaks. “I like to continuously stay in shape,” he said. “Then, toward the end of the summer, when I feel like I need a break, I take another one instead of taking a full break at the beginning of the summer and then playing catch-up.” That meant he continued skating for a few weeks after the Hawks’ season finale April 15. It wasn’t warm yet, so it didn’t feel like time for a vacation. The lessons he learned during his initial six-week stint were also still fresh in his mind. One of those lessons was that he needed to improve his glove use after getting beat on that side often during the final weeks of the season. He has tweaked his goaltending posture this offseason to be slightly more forward and upright.
Conditioning and Workload
He has also worked on making more “desperation saves” in his usual butterfly stance — just moving laterally in that stance — instead of sprawling out on the ice. Conditioning has been an area of emphasis, too, since he knows he’ll have a much larger workload this season than he ever did as Bobrovsky’s backup in Florida. He enjoyed how frequently he played this spring, starting 15 of the final 22 games, but he knows it’ll take stamina to do that over 82. “When you play once every week and a half or so . . . you’re preparing yourself a few days in advance and then recovering for a few days after,” Knight said. “Whereas when you’re playing every other day, you’re not looking past that next day. And I really enjoyed that. It kept me in the zone, kept me in the present. “My body felt great. My mind felt great. Everything felt natural. But [now I’m] . . . getting myself ready to handle that workload this coming season and into the future.”
Conclusion
The Blackhawks’ biggest X-factor is undoubtedly Spencer Knight, who is preparing for a big workload this season. With his technical precision, outstanding lower-body technique, and observant mindset, he has the potential to become a long-term franchise goalie. However, it’s up to him to put it all together and reach his potential. The challenge will be to maintain his performance over a larger workload, but if he can do so, he might be the key to the Hawks’ improvement and potential playoff push.
FAQs
- Q: Who is Spencer Knight?
A: Spencer Knight is the Blackhawks’ goalie who was traded from the Panthers in March in exchange for Seth Jones and a 2026 first-round pick. - Q: What are Knight’s career statistics?
A: In his first 95 NHL games, Knight has a career save percentage of .904 and a career GSAA of plus-0.8. - Q: What changes has Knight made to his game?
A: Knight has tweaked his goaltending posture to be slightly more forward and upright and has worked on making more “desperation saves” in his usual butterfly stance. - Q: What is Knight’s expectation for the upcoming season?
A: Knight is preparing for a big workload this season and is excited to help the Hawks improve and potentially make a playoff push.