With the Pittsburgh Penguins entering the offseason after a brief return to the postseason, TribLive will offer Penguins A to Z, a player-by-player look at all 53 individuals signed to an NHL contract — including those whose deals do not begin until future seasons — with the organization.
Starting with veteran Noel Acciari and going on through to prospect Bill Zonnon, every player will be profiled in alphabetical order.
This series is scheduled to be published every day until June 24, two days before the start of the NHL Draft. In the event of a transaction, that schedule will be altered as necessary.
(Note: All contract information courtesy of Puckpedia.)
Boko Imama
Position: Left winger
Shoots: Left
Age: 29
Height: 6-foot-1
Weight: 223 pounds
2025-26 NHL regular season statistics: Two games, zero points (zero goals, zero assists), 7:39 of average ice time per contest
2025-26 AHL regular season statistics: 66 games, 11 points (six goals, five assists)
2025-26 AHL postseason statistics: Six games, one point (zero goals, one assist)
Contract: Signed to a one-year, two-way contract with a salary cap hit of $775,000. Pending unrestricted free agent on July 1
Acquired: Unrestricted free agent signing, July 1, 2024
This season: Externally, there was some question as to whether the Penguins would re-sign Imama after the 2024-25 campaign, given that he suffered a right bicep injury that required season-ending surgery in March.
But internally, any curiosity over Imama’s place with the club was put to rest by Penguins president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas, who told Imama the club planned to re-sign him a handful of days after he was injured.
After three uneventful preseason games, Imama was one of the team’s final cuts from training camp. After clearing waivers Oct. 5, he was assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League.
Largely relegated to the left wing of the fourth line, Imama was dutiful in his role as Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s enforcer, as evidenced by his team-leading 137 penalty minutes.
Imama wasn’t just in the lineup for his pugilistic abilities. He also offered some measure of skill with the puck. Perhaps there was no better evidence of that than when he scored the opening goal of a 6-3 road win against the Hershey Bears on Nov. 26 with a daring backhanded maneuver during a penalty shot.
Boko Imama with the penalty shot!! pic.twitter.com/IN2pHLrqHT
— x – Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (@WBSPenguins) November 27, 2025
On Dec. 1, Imama was recalled to the NHL roster in advance of a road contest against the rival Philadelphia Flyers. In that contest, a 5-1 victory for the Penguins, Imama logged a career-best 9:39 of ice time.
Three nights later, in a 4-3 road win against the Tampa Bay Lightning, Imama got the best of massive Lightning forward Curtis Douglas (6-foot-9, 242 pounds) in a fight.
By Dec. 7, Imama was returned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and remained in Northeast Pennsylvania for the remainder of the season. In fact, he was in the lineup for 47 of the team’s final 49 games of the campaign and even occasionally enjoyed an elevated role on the third line when injuries and other absences pockmarked the roster.
After serving a one-game suspension to open the postseason for abuse of officials in the regular season finale, Imama has been in the lineup for six of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s eight most recent games, primarily on the left wing of the fourth line.
The future: Given the nature of Imama’s role, he’ll likely have to operate on a year-by-year basis with regard to a contract, whether it’s with the Penguins or any other team.
There’s no guarantee he will re-sign, but Penguins management clearly values Imama, who turns 30 on Aug. 3. That’s why he was given a tidy raise for the AHL portion of his contract — he made $350,000 in 2024-25 and it was increased to $450,000 in 2025-26 — when Dubas and company resigned him last offseason.
Imama definitely has a “break glass in case of emergency” feel to what he can offer. But there are few players who can offer what Imama can, at least to the caliber that he does.