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 "1921.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Adams"]
[Black "Torre"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Annotator "David Hayes"]
[BlackElo "0"]
[FEN "2r1r1k1/1p1q1ppp/3p1b2/p2P4/3Q4/5N2/PP2RPPP/4R1K1 w - - 0 1"]
[SetUp "1"]
[TimeControl "0"]
[WhiteElo "0"]
{ The white queen will offer itself 6 times to uncoordinate black's back
rank. } 1. Qg4 Qb5 2. Qc4 Qd7 3. Qc7 Qb5 ( { Black offers less resistance with: } 3... Qa4 4. b3 Qb5 5. a4 Rf8 6. axb5 { White wins with a large material
advantage. } ) 4. a4 ( { It is premature for white's queen to capture the pawn
on b7 because the black queen eyes the white rook on e2, and the white queen
no longer blocks the path of the black's rook on c8. } 4. Qxb7 Qxe2 5. Rxe2 Rc1+ 6. Ne1 Rxe1+ 7. Rxe1 Rxe1# ) 4... Qxa4 ( { This line does not work with white's
queen blocking black's rook's access to c1. } 4... Qxe2 5. Rxe2 { White wins
with a large material advantage. } ) 5. Re4 Qb5 6. Qxb7 { Black's queen can no
longer run. } 6... g6 7. Qxb5 Rxe4 8. Rxe4 Rc1+ 9. Re1 Rxe1+ 10. Nxe1 { White wins
with a large material advantage. } 1-0