Michel Laplante returns for his sixth season as the Quebec Capitales manager. Laplante led the Capitales to their eighth playoff berth in ten years and won their second Can-Am League championship (2006). The native of Val-d’Or, Quebec spent ten seasons in professional baseball. A 24th-round pick of the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1992 draft, Laplante made it to Double-A Carolina before joining the Northern League’s Madison Black Wolf in 1996. After spending a year with Chia-nan in the Taiwan Major League, Laplante returned to Madison in 1998, where he set a Black Wolf record with ten wins.

In 1999, he became a fan favorite during the Capitales’ first season as he went 11-2 with a 2.06 ERA and 143 strikeouts. In 2000, his contract was purchased by the Montreal Expos and he spent time at Triple-A in the Expos and Atlanta Braves organizations. He was the Capitales’ pitching coach in 2002. He runs his own baseball school and coaches tennis in the Quebec City area during the off-season.