Some of the new liquid water management systems in polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells hold great potential in providing flood-free performance and internal humidification. However, current water management systems entail major setbacks, which either inhibit implementation into state-of-the-art architectures, such as stamped metal flow-fields, or restrict their application to certain channel configurations. Here, a novel water management strategy is presented that uses capillary arrays to control liquid water in PEMFCs. These capillaries are laser-drilled into the land of the flow-fields and allow direct removal (wicking) or supply of water (evaporation), depending on the local demand across the electrode. For a 6.25 cm(2) active area parallel flow-field, a similar to 92% improvement in maximum power density from capillary integration was demonstrated. The proposed mechanism serves as a simple and effective means of achieving robust and reliable fuel cell operation, without incurring additional parasitic losses due to the high pressure drop associated with conventional serpentine flow-fields. (C) 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC.