Although several players are ranked ahead of him on 247Sports’ transfer portal tracker, it’s hard to find a safety in the transfer portal with better numbers than Northern Arizona transfer Alex McLaughlin. On Monday, the 2023 FCS Freshman All-American picked up a crystal ball prediction from 247Sports’ Matt Zenitz to commit to the Washington Huskies.

Over two seasons with the Lumberjacks, McLaughlin put together some eye-popping totals. He tallied 167 tackles, 12 for loss, 7 sacks, 6 interceptions, 16 pass breakups, and 2 forced fumbles while playing all over the field.

Northern Arizona took full advantage of his versatility, utilizing him as a free safety over the top, nickel defender, box safety, and in virtually every role a defensive back can play. He was named to the All-Big Sky Second Team in 2023, and was upgraded to the first team in 2024.

McLaughlin reported offers from all over the country, including Arizona, California, Colorado, and Kentucky among the other teams that are interested in his services, but reportedly took an official visit to Washington over the weekend.

The Huskies are losing veteran safeties Cameron Broussard and Kamren Fabiculanan to graduation and the 6-foot-2, 195-pound McLaughlin would provide some of the experience position coach Vinnie Sunseri is looking for on the backend of the defense.

Washington’s remarkable road run died on Monday night in Dallas in a 3-1 loss to the Stars, a setback that halted the Caps’ road winning streak at 10 and ended their point streak at nine straight games (8-0-1). The Caps went more than six weeks without tasting defeat on the road, but the Stars and American Airlines Arena proved to be too much to overcome on his night.

Roope Hintz continued his Caps-killing ways, scoring the first and third Dallas goals of the game. But Lian Bichsel’s point shot that clanked off Rasmus Sandin’s right glove and went into the Washington net late in the second period stands up as the game-winner.

Washington scored the game’s first goal, but it was unable to build upon that lead, despite having the game’s first three power plays, two of which came after Dylan Strome staked his team to a 1-0 lead late in the first.

The Caps nursed that lead past the midpoint of the game, but Dallas struck for a pair of goals in the back half of the second period; Hintz tied it on the Stars’ first power play of the night and Bichsel’s shot found twine just over four minutes later.

Dallas goaltender Jake Oettinger entered Monday’s game with four wins in as many career starts against Washington, along with a .950 save pct. and a 1.60 GAA. He improved on those qualitative numbers while running his record to 5-0-0 against the Capitals.

“I thought Oettinger was the big [difference], probably 1A,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery. “Special teams is probably 1B, and then probably 1C is they get a couple of lucky breaks, but then they capitalize. Like the power-play [goal]; a couple of their top players make a good play and shoot it in the net, and the same thing on the third goal. They turn us over, and obviously have to execute there and shoot it past our goalie.”

For the third straight game, the Caps hooked up in a taut, tight-checking goaltender’s duel. Each team had its share of looks at the opposing net, but both goaltenders were at the top of their respective games.

At even strength, the Caps generated offensive zone time and they had some decent looks and chances. Late in the first, the Nic Dowd line turned in a strong offensive zone shift, setting the table for Strome’s line, which hopped over the boards while the Stars were unable to make a change. Taylor Raddysh slid the puck to Jakob Chychrun at the left point, and Strome was able to deflect Chychrun’s shot past Oettinger for a 1-0 Washington lead at 15:39 of the opening period.

All five Dallas skaters had been on the ice for at least 98 seconds when the red light came on.

The Caps started the second period with a full power play, and they had another just before the midpoint of the middle period, but were unable to build on their lead, going 0-for-3 with three shots on the three extra-man chances to that point of the game.

When Dallas got its first extra-man chance, it needed only 22 seconds and just one shot with which to square the score at 1-1. Hintz finished a tic-tac-toe passing play from the bumper, knotting the game at 13:28.

For much of the game’s first 40 minutes, the Capitals were just a play away from a Grade A scoring chance. They’d get the puck to someone in a good spot in the offensive zone, and that player would see an even better play, but the Caps were rarely ever to make the last play needed to activate that superior scoring chance.

With the game even at 1-1 late in the second, and with Washington’s Brendan Duhaime and Dallas’ Brendan Smith being boxed after a fight just over a minute earlier, the Caps overpassed their way out of a good look at the Dallas net, and a subsequent errant pass came all the way back to the Washington end of the ice.

The Stars got in on the forecheck and won the puck in the left corner, pushing it out to Bichsel at the left point. Bichsel floated a wrist shot toward the net, and it caught Sandin’s right glove and went in at 17:35, giving Dallas its first lead of the night.

In the third, Washington had another power play opportunity with which to pull even, but again, no sale. The Caps were held without a shot on that last extra-man opportunity, and Dallas – which now boasts the League’s best home penalty kill (90.5%) – ended up with more shots on net (four) than the Caps (three) on Washington’s four chances with the extra man.

“Yeah, you can definitely look to the power play tonight,” laments Strome. “We’ve been good for a while, but just not our sharpest night. It hurt us for sure, even in the third, down 2-1 and we get a power play and don’t even get into the zone.”

Late in the third, a turnover behind the Washington net resulted in a quick Jason Robertson pass to the slot and a one-timer from Hintz for the third Dallas goal, at 14:58.

Washington was seeking to be the first Eastern Conference team to win in the Dallas building in over nine months.

“Credit to their top guys for capitalizing in those spots,” says Carbery. “But I liked a lot of the things that we did tonight, especially at 5-on-5.”

On a night when the Caps played without winger Andrew Mangiapane and the Stars skated without top pairing defender Thomas Harley, Dallas coach Pete DeBoer concurred on Carbery’s assessment of the Stars’ “top guys.”

Dallas defenseman Esa Lindell was on the ice for more than half of the game (30:37) and for virtually all (7:58) of Washington’s eight minutes with the extra man.

“We need that – the power play with a goal,” says DeBoer. “You’re down a man, you’re down some guys, you’re shorthanded, you’re playing the best team in the league and the hottest team in the league, so your best players have to be your best players tonight, and I thought ours were. Roope, [Robertson], Otter, Miro [Heiskanen], Lindy – those were, and we needed that tonight.”

Washington is on track to have more eviction filings this year than any other year on record.

Nine counties, including King and Spokane, hit new high marks, and seven others are on their way.

“The state is in an eviction crisis at this point,” said Tim Thomas, research director at the University of California Berkeley’s Urban Displacement Project.

Washington’s policies, like its right to counsel program, have helped keep some of those people from becoming homeless, Thomas told the Senate Housing Committee on Friday. But he said without more action and funding, evictions will rise further.

Some lawmakers are voicing similar concerns.

“The increase in eviction filings is startling and alarming,” Housing Committee Chair Patty Kuderer, D-Bellevue, said. “There will be a tsunami of homelessness if we don’t handle this correctly.”

Kuderer is moving on from her role in the state Senate next month after she was elected in November to be Washington’s next insurance commissioner.

Evictions dropped significantly during the pandemic, largely due to national and statewide eviction moratoriums and rental assistance programs. Once those programs expired, evictions began to climb again.

One in 50 Washington renters, or about 2%, faced an eviction filing in the last year, according to data from the Urban Displacement Project. 

During 2024, Clark, Grant, Jefferson, King, Klickitat, Okanogan, Spokane, Thurston and Whitman counties have already broken their records for the number of eviction filings in a year. Asotin, Columbia, Douglas, Kittitas, Pend Oreille, Skagit and Walla Walla are on track to break theirs this month. 

Looking at trends in states similar to Washington, like California and Oregon, Thomas said he expects that evictions will not slow anytime soon.

He said one way the state can attempt to manage the record number of evictions is to expand its right to counsel program, which he called “a really powerful policy counterbalancing the crisis and keeping people housed.” 

The program was established in 2021 and requires an attorney to be appointed in eviction proceedings for tenants with incomes below 200% of the federal poverty line. In 2024, that’s one person making $30,120 a year.

Since it launched, the program has handled 22,889 cases. About 81% of tenants in these cases ended up in permanent housing, and about 56% remained in the home subject to the eviction proceeding, according to the Office of Civil Legal Aid, which manages the program. 

“The role that this program plays is not only a procedural safeguard,” said Philippe Knab, eviction defense and reentry program manager at the Office of Civil Legal Aid. “This program and these attorneys serve as a safety net.” 

But as eviction filings rise, attorneys are struggling to keep up, Knab said. “We are currently experiencing a volume of evictions unlike anything we anticipated,” he said.

And with limited resources, some tenants fall through the cracks, Thomas said. 

Just under 45% of tenants facing eviction had legal representation in January 2024, according to research from the University of Washington’s Evans School of Public Policy and Governance. A lack of information on the legal process, psychological barriers and logistical challenges are among the biggest reasons why some tenants never receive representation, Will von Geldern, a University of Washington Ph.D. candidate and researcher, told the Housing Committee.

Attorneys can only help those they can reach, he added.

The Office of Civil Legal Aid is asking lawmakers for $8.8 million in the next two-year budget cycle. That money would go toward continuing funding provided in the last legislative session along with adding five additional attorneys in King County. 

This budget request will allow the program to keep pace with the current eviction levels, not expand any services, Knab said. He acknowledged that legislators will have budget struggles this year given a multibillion-dollar deficit.

Along with continuing to fund the right to counsel program, lawmakers will likely look at other policy solutions to ease the growing wave of evictions. Financial assistance to tenants and landlords, caps on certain rent increases and improving access to social services could all be on the table when they return in January.