Knight endgames are like king and pawn endgames. This rule of thumb was given by former world champion Mikhail Botvinnik, who observed that if a king and pawn endgame was winning, the evaluation would be the same with knights on the board. We can infer that protected or outside passed pawns can be a huge asset in knight endgames, because the stronger side can always offer to trade knights, and the defending side will need to retreat in order to avoid the trade.
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[Event "rated untimed match"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Tajmanov"]
[Black "Zahodjakin"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Annotator "David Hayes"]
[BlackElo "0"]
[FEN "7k/1p2q2p/3N4/2Q1b3/5r2/1P2p2P/P5P1/3R2K1 w - - 0 1"]
[SetUp "1"]
[TimeControl "0"]
[WhiteElo "0"]
1. Nf5 Rf1+ { Sadly there is nothing better. } ( { Black dare not try: } 1... Qf7 2. Rd8+ Qg8 3. Qxe5# ) ( { Black dare not try: } 1... Qxc5 2. Rd8+ Qf8 3. Rxf8# ) 2. Kxf1 e2+ 3. Kxe2 Bd6+ 4. Qe3 Qxe3+ 5. Kxe3 { White wins with a
large material advantage. } 1-0