Spencer Knight ‘comfortable with who I am’ after long journey back to Florida Panthers
As he took a moment to reflect, Spencer Knight felt the closure sink in.
“I’m comfortable with who I am,” Knight said.
It has been a long 20 months for Knight, the Florida Panthers’ ballyhooed 23-year-old who the team has envisioned as being their goaltender of the future.
It started in late February 2023, when Knight entered the NHL and NHL Players Association’s joint player assistance program for what he later revealed to be due to an ongoing case with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
He was away from the team during its run to the Stanley Cup Final that year, when they lost to the Vegas Golden Knights in five games.
Knight returned to the team for training camp ahead of 2023-24 season, but spent the whole season with the Charlotte Checkers, Florida’s American Hockey League affiliate, while Anthony Stolarz backed up Sergei Bobrovsky for the Panthers during their championship-winning season.
Now, he’s back with a newfound sense of mental fortitude, a greater appreciation for where he is and a better grasp on his life both on the ice and away from it.
“You just gain a lot of experience, and I think just put things in perspective, right?” Knight said. “And I think I’ve just gained a lot of mental strength in the sense of just knowing who I am, knowing a lot more about myself. When you go through hard times, you learn to go through it and you lean on that experience when hard times come again, and then sometimes things are just like ‘Oh, this isn’t too bad.’ Like, a bad day at the rink isn’t actually too bad. So I think it puts things in perspective for me. ... That allows you to come here and just play free.”
That has shown so far this season.
Knight is 3-1-0 in his four starts so far this season as Bobrovsky’s backup.
After giving up four goals on 26 shots in his season debut at Buffalo on Oct. 12, Knight has produced a .918 save percentage, stopping 89 of 97 shots that have come his way.
His most recent two outings tested his resolve.
Against the New York Islanders on Oct. 26, Knight gave up three goals on seven shots in the first 11:41 and then went a perfect 21 for 21 the rest of the way as Florida scored six unanswered goals for a 6-3 win.
And then on Nov. 2 against the Dallas Stars in Finland as part of the NHL Global Series, Knight gave up a pair of goals in a span of 34 seconds in the middle of the second period and then stopped final 9 shots, including all seven in the third period, as the Panthers won 4-2.
“He’s grown,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “I believe he is a better goaltender now, not just in experience, but ... he looks very mature in the net and certainly looks in a more comfortable place.”
Added Panthers president of hockey operations and general manager Bill Zito: “Anytime you look at an individual’s progress, you have to pause and realize from what lens you are examining. Sometimes, different people progress on different time frames. For me, he’s just being Spence, and as with any goalie, you don’t get too high or too low, but he’s doing the things that we thought he would do. And most importantly, I think that he’s really enjoying playing hockey.”
He’s enjoying life, too. He leaves everything hockey-related at the rink. When he’s away from the ice, he cooks, goes for walks, sweats out in saunas and organizes his new place in Fort Lauderdale.
“Keeping it pretty easy,” Knight said.
On the hockey front, consistently being in the net for Charlotte last season helped him feel more of the “emotional attachment” to the team, something he lost a bit when he wasn’t playing as much.
“Last year, to go through the good, the bad, back and forth against that pro hockey kind of grind was good to experience,” Knight said. “Now, I think I’m just gonna apply what I learned at this level and obviously there’s gonna be much more learning to have you had at this level too.”
Knight has had spurts of success at the NHL level. He entered the season with a .906 save percentage and 2.91 goals against average over 51 games.
And after getting a chance to be around the team for this season’s run to winning its first Stanley Cup, he is focused on doing what he can when his name is called to help the team on its quest for a repeat.
“I think seeing just how hard it is,” Knight said. “I have a little piece of [understanding] how hard it is to do that, to succeed in the end. Do I know the full ins and outs? No because I wasn’t playing, but to be able to see that, to see how just how hard and how much of a grind it is at a very surface level, I think introduces me to how to approach being a pro and building your game for those moments.”
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