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 "Unknown"]
[Black "Unknown282"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Annotator "David Hayes"]
[BlackElo "0"]
[FEN "2r2rk1/pp5p/6p1/1Pq5/2nNQ3/2B4R/5PPP/6K1 w - - 0 1"]
[SetUp "1"]
[TimeControl "0"]
[WhiteElo "0"]
1. Qe6+ ( { White dare not try: } 1. Ne6 Qxf2+ 2. Kh1 Qf1# ) 1... Rf7 2. Rxh7 Ne5 ( { Black can try: } 2... Kxh7 3. Qxf7+ Kh6 4. Ne6 Rc7 5. Qf4+ Kh7 6. Nxc5 Rxc5 { White wins with a large material advantage. } ) 3. Rxf7 Nxf7 4. Qxg6+ Kh8 5. Ne2+ Ne5 6. Qf6+ Kg8 7. Qxe5 Qxe5 8. Bxe5 Rc5 9. f4 { White wins with a
large material advantage. } 1-0