The Chicago Blackhawks made a notable move over the weekend when they signed goaltender Spencer Knight to a three-year, $17.5 million contract extension. With this move, the Blackhawks now have their young starting goalie locked up until the end of the 2028-29 season, as his new extension does not kick in until 2026-27. He will also have a $5.83 million cap hit for the Blackhawks once his extension begins.
Clearly, the Blackhawks are confident in Knight to give him a contract extension like this. It is understandable, as the 24-year-old possesses good upside and has had a solid career so far. In 95 career games split between the Florida Panthers and Blackhawks, the 2019 first-round pick has recorded a 49-33-9 record, a .904 save percentage, and a 2.83 goals-against average.
During a recent episode of 32 Thoughts: The Podcast, NHL insider Elliotte Friedman discussed Knight's extension.
"I was a little bit surprised," Friedman said. "I mentioned on one of the summer pods that the rumor was that Chicago was looking to extend Knight. So I wasn't surprised at all that I heard it was getting done. He's obviously a huge part of their team. What surprised me was you look at a lot of the goalie deals recently, it was Swayman 8x8.5, Oettinger 8x8.25, Wolf 7x7.5. Now, Knight obviously does not have as much runway as a starter. He only buys up one year of UFA. He's banking on himself clearly to set himself up as that kind of a number, if not more, in three years."
Friedman then added:
"Like if you take a look at it, Kyle, what he could have done was he could have gone to arbitration next year, arbitration the year after, and then gone to UFA. But what he is saying here is that he believes in what he can do that if he hits the market or he can hit the market at a time when a lot of other number ones are signed, he thinks he can really smash it big. It's an interesting bet because, like I said, it flies in the face of a lot of other deals, but it sets himself up to really hit it big at a time a lot of number-one goaltenders won't be available."
This is an intriguing take from Friedman, but also understandable. There is no question that going with a short-term extension offers Knight the chance to improve his value and try to land a bigger payday once it expires. It will be interesting to see if Knight can hit that next level for the Blackhawks and land a big contract once his extension expires after the 2028-29 campaign.