diff --git a/merlin/dag/executors.py b/merlin/dag/executors.py
index 3bb48a1eb..c66a93bd4 100644
--- a/merlin/dag/executors.py
+++ b/merlin/dag/executors.py
@@ -28,7 +28,6 @@
 )
 from merlin.dag import ColumnSelector, Graph, Node
 from merlin.dtypes.shape import DefaultShapes
-from merlin.io import Dataset
 from merlin.io.worker import clean_worker_cache
 
 LOG = logging.getLogger("merlin")
@@ -52,7 +51,20 @@ def transform(
         Transforms a single dataframe (possibly a partition of a Dask Dataframe)
         by applying the operators from a collection of Nodes
         """
-        nodes = self._output_nodes(graph)
+        nodes = []
+        if isinstance(graph, Graph):
+            nodes.append(graph.output_node)
+        elif isinstance(graph, Node):
+            nodes.append(graph)
+        elif isinstance(graph, list):
+            nodes = graph
+        else:
+            raise TypeError(
+                f"LocalExecutor detected unsupported type of input for graph: {type(graph)}."
+                " `graph` argument must be either a `Graph` object (preferred)"
+                " or a list of `Node` objects (deprecated, but supported for backward "
+                " compatibility.)"
+            )
 
         # There's usually only one node, but it's possibly to pass multiple nodes for `fit`
         # If we have multiple, we concatenate their outputs into a single transformable
@@ -71,24 +83,6 @@ def transform(
 
         return output_data
 
-    def _output_nodes(self, graph):
-        nodes = []
-        if isinstance(graph, Graph):
-            nodes.append(graph.output_node)
-        elif isinstance(graph, Node):
-            nodes.append(graph)
-        elif isinstance(graph, list):
-            nodes = graph
-        else:
-            raise TypeError(
-                f"LocalExecutor detected unsupported type of input for graph: {type(graph)}."
-                " `graph` argument must be either a `Graph` object (preferred)"
-                " or a list of `Node` objects (deprecated, but supported for backward "
-                " compatibility.)"
-            )
-
-        return nodes
-
     def _execute_node(self, node, transformable, capture_dtypes=False, strict=False):
         upstream_outputs = self._run_upstream_transforms(
             node, transformable, capture_dtypes, strict
@@ -269,7 +263,7 @@ def __getstate__(self):
 
     def transform(
         self,
-        dataset,
+        ddf,
         graph,
         output_dtypes=None,
         additional_columns=None,
@@ -280,12 +274,23 @@ def transform(
         Transforms all partitions of a Dask Dataframe by applying the operators
         from a collection of Nodes
         """
-        nodes = self._executor._output_nodes(graph)
+        nodes = []
+        if isinstance(graph, Graph):
+            nodes.append(graph.output_node)
+        elif isinstance(graph, Node):
+            nodes.append(graph)
+        elif isinstance(graph, list):
+            nodes = graph
+        else:
+            raise TypeError(
+                f"DaskExecutor detected unsupported type of input for graph: {type(graph)}."
+                " `graph` argument must be either a `Graph` object (preferred)"
+                " or a list of `Node` objects (deprecated, but supported for backward"
+                " compatibility.)"
+            )
 
         self._clear_worker_cache()
 
-        ddf = dataset.to_ddf()
-
         # Check if we are only selecting columns (no transforms).
         # If so, we should perform column selection at the ddf level.
         # Otherwise, Dask will not push the column selection into the
@@ -318,31 +323,27 @@ def transform(
             # don't require dtype information on the DDF this doesn't matter all that much
             output_dtypes = type(ddf._meta)({k: [] for k in columns})
 
-        return Dataset(
-            ensure_optimize_dataframe_graph(
-                ddf=ddf.map_partitions(
-                    self._executor.transform,
-                    nodes,
-                    additional_columns=additional_columns,
-                    capture_dtypes=capture_dtypes,
-                    strict=strict,
-                    meta=output_dtypes,
-                    enforce_metadata=False,
-                )
+        return ensure_optimize_dataframe_graph(
+            ddf=ddf.map_partitions(
+                self._executor.transform,
+                nodes,
+                additional_columns=additional_columns,
+                capture_dtypes=capture_dtypes,
+                strict=strict,
+                meta=output_dtypes,
+                enforce_metadata=False,
             )
         )
 
-    def fit(self, dataset: Dataset, graph, strict=False):
-        """Calculates statistics for a set of nodes on the input dataset
+    def fit(self, ddf, nodes, strict=False):
+        """Calculates statistics for a set of nodes on the input dataframe
 
         Parameters
         -----------
-        dataset: merlin.io.Dataset
-            The input dataset to calculate statistics for. If there is a
+        ddf: dask.Dataframe
+            The input dataframe to calculate statistics for. If there is a
             train/test split this should be the training dataset only.
         """
-        nodes = self._executor._output_nodes(graph)
-
         stats = []
         for node in nodes:
             # Check for additional input columns that aren't generated by parents
@@ -356,8 +357,8 @@ def fit(self, dataset: Dataset, graph, strict=False):
 
             # apply transforms necessary for the inputs to the current column group, ignoring
             # the transforms from the statop itself
-            transformed = self.transform(
-                dataset,
+            transformed_ddf = self.transform(
+                ddf,
                 node.parents_with_dependencies,
                 additional_columns=addl_input_cols,
                 capture_dtypes=True,
@@ -365,7 +366,7 @@ def fit(self, dataset: Dataset, graph, strict=False):
             )
 
             try:
-                stats.append(node.op.fit(node.input_columns, transformed))
+                stats.append(node.op.fit(node.input_columns, transformed_ddf))
             except Exception:
                 LOG.exception("Failed to fit operator %s", node.op)
                 raise