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No affiliation, no problem.

That's one of the things that sold Dominic D'Amour on the Dayton Bombers.

"I think Dayton is a great city with a lot of visibility," the defenseman said. "I like that I'm not stuck with one AHL team."

Dayton is one of only three ECHL teams (Idaho and Mississippi are the others) without an American Hockey League affiliation. For D'Amour, who has AHL experience with Toronto and St. John's, that's ideal.

"I have a lot of free-agent friends who feel the same way," he said. "You get a lot of looks from a lot of teams that way."

The Montreal native recently signed with the Bombers and will, in fact, be at Rochester's AHL camp next week.

"This is a league of opportunity so we want him to do well," Dayton coach Bill McDonald said. "And he understands, if he comes to Dayton, we're going to be looking to him for leadership."

At 24, D'Amour has already spent more than two decades on the ice.

"I think my dad took me on skates as soon as I was walking," he said.

By 3, he was playing hockey. It didn't take him long to realize where he belonged.

"I was 8 years old and I was a forward, but I was always back on my blue line, making sure we didn't get scored on," he said. "I would rather protect my goal and my team."

That mindset appealed to McDonald.

"He's a guy we went out and got," the second-year coach said. "I think he's going to complement (Greg) Labenski."

D'Amour is one of four players recently signed by the Bombers. Dayton also added goaltender Dan McWhinney, center Christian Gaudet and defenseman Nathan Schwartzbauer, bringing the roster up to 18.

McDonald is pleased with the signings to date.

"We've got guys who are excited to come in here and we're excited to have them," McDonald said. "Over the years, I've learned to target character guys and that's what we've done. I think you can win a lot of games with work ethic."

Bombers Info

Oct. 10 — Dayton at Cincinnati (Sports Plus), 7:30 p.m.

Oct. 11 — Cincinnati at Dayton (Kettering Ice Arena), 2 p.m.

Season opener — Saturday, Oct. 18, vs. Kelly Cup champion Cincinnati Cyclones.

Ticket info — Individual game tickets are on sale at www.daytonbombers.com, the Nutter Center box office or Ticketmaster. Tickets start at $15 for adults and $10 for children 10 and younger.