Blackhawks May Look To Make Another Gamble With Spencer Knight

The Chicago Blackhawks might be taking an interesting approach with many of their young players moving forward after what we have seen with Alex Vlasic's long-term deal and more recently Frank Nazar's big contract with very little NHL experience.

It has been suggested that the next Blackhawk that we could see sign a bigger ticket is Spencer Knight, who was acquired in the Seth Jones deal last season. Knight is going to be given a lot of opportunities to be the number one in Chicago as he is two years younger than Arvid Soderblom and arguably a fair bit better.

Elliotte Friedman said, "I do believe Chicago is considering some other business, and one of the things I do wonder about is Spencer Knight, he's up after this year." The insider also added, "it just shows if teams really believe in these guys, they'll make their bets. And it's very clear that Chicago is going to make their bets."

Knight is 24 years old and heading into the final year of a three-year, $4.5 million AAV deal he signed with the Florida Panthers. He went 17-16-3 with a 2.72 GAA and .902 SV% with a 6.9 goals saved above expected last season, split between Florida and Chicago.

After Knight was acquired, he played 15 games for the Blackhawks. During that time, Soderblom played just seven and he sported a .859 SV% in that stretch. He was much better earlier in the year, but this split of games shows us it's obvious who Chicago is going to turn to twice as much next season. One was a first-round pick they scored and Soderblom was supposed to be the third-string goalie playing in the AHL last season.

I think signing Knight to a hefty, long-term extension is the right move, even with Soderblom as well as Drew Commesso and Adam Gajan in the system. It isn't easy to acquire and have a good young goalie be capable of starting, and I think that's what the Blackhawks have found in Knight. There is more than enough money and it could turn out to be much more of a risk to sign him short-term and cost the Blackhawks down the line.