Panthers goalie Spencer Knight opens up about OCD diagnosis

Knight had been in the Player Assistance Program since February, but the reason for entering the program had been unknown until this interview. That also meant that he had to sit from the sidelines while the Panthers went on their run to the Stanley Cup Final.

“One of the feelings you get when something like this happens is that you just let everyone down,” Knight told the Hockey News. “I never wanted to feel like a burden.”

Knight mentioned that he had issues with obsessively washing his hands in the past, but he reached a boiling point after contracting the flu in December 2022 and became overly focused on cleanliness. It caused him to lose sleep at night and lose focus, and ultimately led him to enroll in the Player Assistance Program.

Knight worked with an OCD expert and had conversations with other people who had OCD about how to go about their lives, and now feels much more equipped to live life without worrying about the things he can’t control. He believes that he’s able to handle the uncertainty that will come with returning to goaltending after all the time he spent away from it, and that it will help him become better at the position.

“I can still be the player I want to be, and I still believe I can be one of the best goalies in this league,” said Knight. “Maybe it’s this year, maybe it’s next year, maybe it’s in three years or four years or five years. I don’t know. I know what I’m capable of accomplishing. It was there before and it has been there the whole time.”

Knight will be joining the Panthers in training camp next week, and will look to build his game back to where it used to be before taking time away, even if that means starting the season in the American Hockey League.

Knight got into 21 games in the 2022-23 season before entering the Player Assistance Program. He finished the season with a 9-8-3 record, one shutout, a .901 save percentage and -4.48 5v5 goals saved above expected.