Roberto Bissonnette

Roberto Bissonnette
(Bob)

• School Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières

• Born April 27, 1981 in Caracas, Distrito Federal Venezuela
• Died September 4, 2016 in Flatlands, NB CAN

Biographical Information

Roberto Bissonnette was part owner of Les Capitales de Québec in the Can-Am Association.

He was a hockey player in his youth, serving as captain of the Olympiques de Hull in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, for whom he played from 1998 to 2002. He then attended the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières and played one professional season in the East Coast Hockey League, before turning to semi-pro hockey in various senior leagues. A left winger, he was known for his toughness, as his 1,260 penalty minutes, the 10th highest total in the history of the QJMHL, attest.

Bissonnette had a number of interests besides hockey. He was a professional musician, releasing three albums of his own songs, his first in 2010. Many of his songs were on the theme of sports, treated with humor.

He was also a passionate baseball fan; he became a minority owner of Les Capitales in early 2016, but died in a helicopter crash in New Brunswick on September 4th of that year. Michel Laplante, another key figure with the team, was the only survivor of the crash, as the pilot was also killed after the aircraft hit power lines.

He was a very popular figure in his home province, as attested by the fact that his life was the subject of a documentary film (Bob Bissonnette: Rockstar. Pis pas à peu près., 2019) as well as a biography.

Further Reading

• Marc Brassard: Gorgée! La vie trop courte de Roberto «Bob» Bissonnette, La Semaine Éditeur, Montréal, QC, 2021. ISBN 9782897035662

Related Sites

• Roberto Bissonnette at the Internet Hockey Database
• Profile from Le Journal de Montréal