Boko Imama's injury makes his future with the Penguins a complicated situation

It didn't take very long for Boko Imama to garner the attention of Penguins fans. His willingness to step into the ring on every shift provided something the Penguins haven't had in a while - a true enforcer.

With a team full of aging legends in a league where chicanery abounds, the Penguins have been known by fans in recent years to be "soft". Refusal to defend fellow players, inability to excite the team by getting in tilts, and a lack of physicality all factor into those claims.

But Boko Imama reversed that narrative almost immediately when he found his way to the NHL club. He started throwing his body around and became a tool for Mike Sullivan to use when chippiness started to boil over.

Boko's Role

Nobody on the ice wants a piece of this guy. He's a legit heavyweight fighter at 6'1" 220lbs.

Imama isn't on the ice to score goals. He's out there to keep the peace, doing so by inciting fear in the opposing team.

Every team needs an energy guy, and Imama fills that bid in a very unique way. He only averaged 5 minutes and 40 seconds of ice time this season, but those often came with a pending faceoff following a scrap.

Mike Sullivan used Imama as a conditioner, a field-leveler, when tempers had the temptation to flare up.

The Injury

A bicep injury forced Imama to undergo surgery, and his timetable to return is several months.

Penguins fans in general are bummed about him being out for the rest of the year. Especially with where the Penguins are at as a team right now, having him around in these final weeks would have been a rose amongst thorns for a team sinking to the bottom.

Given his role, he also would have been integral in maintaining the health of current players even now. We don't need Crosby getting cheap-shotted in the final games of the season. Imama would have prevented that.

But now arises a complication. What do you do with Imama?

Imama's future as a Penguin

This is a big question mark. Imama has a very specific niche - the enforcer, the fighter. But how valuable is that to a team who will look to finally bounce back in 2025-26?

Imama in 16 games with Pittsburgh this season scored one goal and tabbed zero assists. The goal itself was great, and he was just an assist away from a Gordie Howe Hat Trick in the win over the Blue Jackets, but, again, can the Penguins justify giving him a role on the team next season?

Perhaps the funniest tweet from that night was this one from Penguins radio broadcaster, Joe Brand.

The mountain: record an assist - something Imama is still yet to do in the NHL. Unfortunately for his case, Imama doesn't directly create goals.

Now, that doesn't mean that he can't indirectly create them. We saw Connor Dewar create his own goal indirectly by being active on the forecheck, leading to a loose puck that found its way back to Dewar's stick.

Imama does have a +2 rating in 16 games, which for his limited amount of ice time is not bad. In fact, he never finished a game with a negative (-) rating this season. Additionally, the Penguins were 9-5-2 when he suited up.

But are those underlying numbers enough to keep him around?

Unfortunately, I don't think so.

I believe Boko Imama is going to be one of the unfortunate casualties as the Penguins retool in the offseason.

Is he perhaps a fan favorite? Yes.

Does his presence on the roster promote the urgency with which Kyle Dubas wants to restrcuture a competitive hockey team in Pittsburgh? Unfortunately, no.

If the Penguins have the opportunity to keep Imama in the system, I would love that. However, he's at the end of his contract and will be an unrestricted free agent at the conclusion of this season.

We may have seen the end of the Imama tenure in black and gold, which is the longest NHL stint he's had in his career. You love to see genuine like Imama get an extended chance on the big stage, and the Penguins were able to do that for him this season.

We at Pens Labyrinth have been "Loco for Boko" since the beginning, well before the Penguins fandom developed an affinity for him. If this is, indeed, the end of the road for Imama in black and gold, we're glad we got to witness his grittiness. It was welcome and wildly entertaining.