Joel Quenneville's return to the NHL leaked early?

Former National Hockey League head coach Joel Quenneville appears to become a topic of conversation any time a coach in the NHL is fired but, despite there appearing to be a constant buzz around his name and vacant coaching jobs, the disgraced former head coach of the Chicago Blackhawks remains on the outside looking in.

This could very well be the year that things change for Quenneville however with disgraced former Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman making his own return to the NHL last year following his suspension for his involvement in the Kyle Beach scandal. The decision to reinstate Bowman would appear to pave the way for Quenneville's return to coaching and we may have just been given an early indication of where that return may take place.

While there has been no official report of any kind regarding Quenneville's future, on Saturday insider John Buccigross of ESPN sent out a cryptic tweet that contained no words and only 2 pictures. The first picture was one of Quenneville himself, while the other appeared to be that of a mother duck leading a group of smaller ducks.

Here is a look at the tweet:

Buccigross is one of the most well connected insiders in the world of sports with a career at ESPN that spans the better part of 3 decades, which of course has caused a great many eyebrows to perk up at his cryptic announcement.

The obvious guess here would be that Quenneville will be heading to the Anaheim Ducks, but I am hesitant to read too much into what was clearly meant to be a tweet that was very much designed to ignite a conversation. That being said, it does very much look like that is the message that Buccigross is trying to send.

Will Joel Quenneville be the next head coach of the Anaheim Ducks? Only time will tell.