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 "Unknown49"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Annotator "David Hayes"]
[BlackElo "0"]
[FEN "r5k1/5pp1/2P1p2p/3p4/3P4/2Pq2P1/1R5P/2Q3K1 w - - 0 1"]
[SetUp "1"]
[TimeControl "0"]
[WhiteElo "0"]
1. c7 Kh7 2. Rb8 Ra2 3. c8=Q Rd2 4. Qxd2 { The only winning move. } ( { White can
try: } 4. Qf1 Qe3+ 5. Kh1 Qe4+ 6. Kg1 Qe3+ 7. Kh1 Qe4+ { Draw by repetition of
position. } ) ( { White dare not try: } 4. Qe1 Rd1 5. Qxd1 Qxd1+ 6. Kg2 Qe2+ 7. Kh3 Qf1+ 8. Kh4 g5+ 9. Kg4 Qf5+ 10. Kh5 Qh3# ) 4... Qxd2 5. Qa6 Qxc3 6. Qe2 Qxd4+ 7. Qf2 { White wins with a large material advantage.|Pawn promotion and
accurate defense win the day. } 1-0