Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky and Ayahuasca: Clarke MacArthur's wild ride post-Ottawa Senators

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Taxes on the $14.25 million remaining on the then 32-year-old’s contract would be easier to stomach down south and he wouldn’t be pestered about hockey in the slightest — he didn’t watch a game for two years.

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Playing golf with Michael Jordan

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Shortly after joining Medalist Golf Club — a prestigious private course just north of Jupiter, Fla., crawling with PGA Tour players, celebrities and former professional athletes — MacArthur was invited through a friend to play with basketball legend Michael Jordan.

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It’s the kind of game every golf junkie dreams of. Five or six players, fast-paced, ready golf; a caddy and a cart each; high-stakes wagers; and the GOAT is relentlessly trash talking everyone.

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MacArthur, playing off a scratch handicap, tied Jordan in their first round together and presumably passed the hang-ability test. He was in.

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That meant 36 holes, four days a week. Some mornings, they’d finish in under five hours. MacArthur needed maintenance days to keep up. It was the best kind of exhaustion.

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“That saved me the first four or five years that I played in that, when I had to take early retirement,” MacArthur said. “It definitely gave me that competitive edge. You know, you have to go work for it every day, and who’s better to do it with than Michael Jordan? He’ll definitely get your competitive juices flowing for sure. He competes harder than anybody.”

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When Jordan opened his own course down the road, the famous Grove XXIII, MacArthur was one of the first members. His stall mates? Jordan, PGA Tour players Phil Mickelson and Keegan Bradley, and the greatest quarterback of all time, Tom Brady.

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MacArthur still gets the odd Friday round in with Jordan these days, but work has been picking up at an exponential rate. He works for a quantitative hedge fund, sells residential real estate, owns commercial properties and is getting into the car warranty business.

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How is Clarke MacArthur’s health now?

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To answer the question on every Sens fan’s mind: He’s doing well.

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“I feel great,” MacArthur said. “I did a lot of rehab stuff for my neck after I stopped playing just because that was kind of the main problem for me. It felt like everything was kind of stemming from that and I’ve been able to maintain it and take care of it, and I feel, you know, as good as I can for sure.”

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At 41, he takes his health seriously: 16-hour daily fasting, cold tubs, red light therapy, supplements — the whole shebang.

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In 2025, MacArthur went with former Buffalo Sabres teammate Tim Connolly to Costa Rica for a six-day Ayahuasca trip. The heavy experience with the psychedelic tea helped heal past trauma and stripped his ego. He told the Missin Curfew podcast last year that it was “probably singlehandedly the greatest experience I’ve ever had in my life.”

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Hockey is a big part of his life again, recreationally. He met Wayne Gretzky through the Florida golf scene and they watch games together all the time.

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Gretzky’s stories are legendary; MacArthur has a few good ones of his own.

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For someone who played just 149 regular-season games for the Sens — Alex Chiasson dressed for more! — that MacArthur remains so beloved by the fan base is a testament to the heart he showed those final two seasons.

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“When I left, the thing I didn’t want was people feeling bad for me,” he said. “Because we made a lot of money playing and people go through real tragedies and real issues, and I didn’t want to consider it the same. But I appreciate and love the support I got from Ottawa. It makes me almost emotional now talking about it.”

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A decade removed, Ottawa is very much a pleasant thought.

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“They’ve invited me back for playoffs the last few years and, regretfully, just with kids’ sports and things that were going on, I couldn’t make it,” he admits. “I wanted to go just to feel the rink again and the emotions of all of it.

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“If the opportunity comes again, I’m going to jump at it.”

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