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 "Unknown20"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Annotator "David Hayes"]
[BlackElo "0"]
[FEN "2b5/p2r1qk1/4pbp1/Q6p/2P1B3/8/P2N2PP/5R1K w - - 0 1"]
[SetUp "1"]
[TimeControl "0"]
[WhiteElo "0"]
1. Bc6 { Gaining time on the rook while clearing e4 for the knight. } 1... Re7 ( { Black can try: } 1... Bb7 2. Bxd7 Qxd7 { White wins with a large material
advantage. } ) 2. Ne4 e5 3. Bd5 Be6 4. Rxf6 Qe8 5. h4 { White wins with a large
material advantage. } 1-0