TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 29, 2026--
Cizzle Brands Corporation (Cboe Canada: CZZL; OTCQB: CZZLF; Frankfurt: 8YF) ( “Cizzle Brands” or the “Company” ), the sports nutrition company that is elevating the game in health and wellness, today congratulated CWENCH Hydration athlete Gavin McKenna on being selected first overall at the 2026 draft in Buffalo, New York. To celebrate the accomplishment, Cizzle is launching “Draft Day Blue,” a limited-time blue cherry flavour of its flagship CWENCH sports hydration drink.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260629713651/en/
McKenna, the 18-year-old forward from Whitehorse, Yukon, becomes the second number one draft pick to wear the CWENCH colours, along with 2024 MVP, Nathan MacKinnon.
McKenna’s rise has been as swift as it has been complete. After developing in minor hockey in Whitehorse, Yukon, he became one of the most dominant players in the Western Hockey League with the Medicine Hat Tigers, earning Canadian Hockey League Player of the Year honours, stringing together a 54-game point streak across the regular season and playoffs, and leading Medicine Hat to a WHL championship and a Memorial Cup final appearance in 2024-25. He then took the step of moving to U.S. college hockey for the 2025-26 season, joining the Penn State Nittany Lions in the NCAA, where he posted 51 points (15 goals and 36 assists) in 35 games, was named a top-10 finalist for the Hobey Baker Award as the top player in NCAA men’s hockey and won the award for Big Ten Freshman of the Year, helping lead Penn State to the NCAA Tournament. Along the way, he represented Canada at the 2026 IIHF World Junior Championship.
McKenna joined Team CWENCH in 2024, well before he became the consensus top prospect in hockey. Under his agreement with Cizzle Brands, he granted the Company exclusive endorsement rights within the sports drink, energy drink, isotonic beverage, and supplement categories.
“We didn’t sign Gavin because he was the first overall pick. We signed him because we believed he would become one, long before it was obvious to everyone else,” said John Celenza, Chief Executive Officer of Cizzle Brands. “Backing emerging talent is part of who we are. Gavin now steps onto the biggest stage in hockey, in the most passionate and demanding market in the world, and we could not be prouder to be in his corner. Draft Day Blue is our way of celebrating Gavin’s latest accomplishment and continuing to set CWENCH as the aspirational brand in the sports hydration category.”
Draft Day Blue is a blue cherry flavour of CWENCH, the better-for-you sports hydration drink built to hydrate the next generation of athletes. The 500 mL limited-time offering features bold blue cherry taste in CWENCH’s signature Tetra Pak format and celebrates one of the most anticipated draft picks in recent memory. As a limited release, Draft Day Blue will be available only while supplies last. Draft Day Blue was brought to life at The CWENCH Hydration Factory, the Company’s manufacturing facility, whose vertically integrated capabilities enabled Cizzle to move from concept to finished Tetra Pak product on the timeline the moment demanded.
Draft Day Blue is confirmed for retail distribution at Shell Canada, CanCo Gas, and Healthy Planet, with additional retail partners expected to be announced in the coming weeks. Cizzle anticipates strong demand as fans and athletes across the country look to celebrate this landmark moment in McKenna’s career.
McKenna’s journey, from minor hockey in the Yukon, through the WHL and a standout NCAA season at Penn State, to the first overall pick, reflects exactly the kind of path CWENCH was built to support. The brand’s partnership with McKenna is part of a broader commitment to investing in athletes early and championing the grassroots of the game, from local rinks to the national stage. As McKenna’s career rises, CWENCH intends to keep showing up for the players and communities that make hockey what it is.
Today’s news celebrates a defining milestone in his career and the launch of a product built to mark it.
About Cizzle Brands Corporation
Cizzle Brands Corporation is a vertically integrated sports nutrition company that is elevating the game in health and wellness. Through extensive collaboration and testing with leading athletes and trainers across several sports, Cizzle Brands has launched three game-changing brands: (i) CWENCH Hydration™, a better-for-you sports drink that is now carried in over 6,700 locations in Canada, the United States, and Europe; (ii) Spoken™ Nutrition, a premium brand of athlete-grade nutraceuticals that carry the prestigious NSF Certified for Sport® qualification; and (iii) HappiEats™, upgrading everyday eats with high-performance foods such as Sport Pasta™ and SnakStars™ Sport Bites. It also owns and operates The CWENCH Hydration Factory, a manufacturing facility that produces CWENCH Hydration and other leading beverage brands in Tetra Pak packaging. All Cizzle Brands products are designed to help people of all ages achieve their best in competitive sports and in living a healthy, vibrant, active lifestyle.
For more information about Cizzle Brands, please visit: https://www.cizzlebrands.com/
For more information about CWENCH Hydration™, please visit: https://www.cwenchhydration.com
For more information about Spoken™ Nutrition, please visit: https://www.spokennutrition.com
For more information about HappiEats™, please visit https://www.myhappieats.com
On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Company,
CIZZLE BRANDS CORPORATION
“John Celenza”
John Celenza, Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer
CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION
This news release contains "forward-looking information" which may include, but is not limited to, information with respect to the activities, events or developments that the Company expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future, such as, but not limited to: expected financial results, manufacturing efficiency, growth strategy, retail expansion and product launches, scaling of production capacity, new products of the Company and potential sales and distribution opportunities. Such forward-looking information is often, but not always, identified by the use of words and phrases such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", or "believes" or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases, or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Various assumptions or factors are typically applied in drawing conclusions or making the forecasts or projections set out in forward-looking information. Those assumptions and factors are based on information currently available to the Company.
Forward looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other risk factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. Such risks include risks related to increased competition and current global financial conditions, access and supply risks, reliance on key personnel, operational risks (including manufacturing facility utilization rates, dependency on third-party co-manufacturing volume commitments, and production line efficiencies), reliance on third-party logistics (3PL) providers and outsourced supply chain networks, dependency on single-source or third-party suppliers for raw materials and packaging inputs (including outsourced proprietary flavor formulations), regulatory risks, financing, capitalization and liquidity risks. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The Company undertakes no obligation, except as otherwise required by law, to update these forward-looking statements if management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors change.
Draft Day Blue pictured here in Cizzle Brands signature Tetra Pak format will be available at Shell Canada, CanCo and Healthy Planet, with additional retailers expected to be announced soon.
Cizzle Brands today announced the launch of Draft Day Blue, a limited-time blue cherry flavour of CWENCH Hydration celebrating Gavin McKenna’s selection first overall in the NHL Draft.
