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 "1950.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Keres"]
[Black "Foltis"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Annotator "David Hayes"]
[BlackElo "0"]
[FEN "3b1k2/8/5pP1/2p3p1/8/2n1NP2/r5PB/4R2K w - - 0 1"]
[SetUp "1"]
[TimeControl "0"]
[WhiteElo "0"]
1. Nf5 Re2 2. Ra1 Nb5 { Stops Ra7. } 3. Bg1 Re5 ( { Black can try: } 3... Bb6 4. Ra8+ Re8 5. g7+ Kf7 6. Rxe8 Kxe8 7. g8=Q+ { White wins with a large material
advantage. } ) ( { Black can also try: } 3... c4 4. Bc5+ Kg8 5. Rd1 Bc7 6. Rd7 c3 7. Nh6+ Kh8 8. Rh7# ) 4. g4 Nc7 5. Bh2 Rd5 6. g7+ { The pawn awakens. } 6... Kf7 7. Bxc7 Bxc7 8. g8=Q+ Kxg8 9. Ne7+ Kf7 10. Nxd5 { White wins with a large
material advantage. } 1-0