He doesn't have to play like a board grinding checker. He just needs to get in on dump ins and fight for possession in the offensive end and exert that same effort to support his defensemen as a release valve in his own end. You know, the same stuff that noted grinding checkers like Brock Boeser and Ilya Mikheyhev do on a regular basis. The kind of habits that help your line not get caved in at evens.
They knew exactly what they were trying their hardest to sign, not every player is a dump and chase expert and forcing high skilled snipers into dump in posession board battle forecheckers, and they're benched if they dont even though they had insane chemistry with ep and proven productive is full Pejorative Slur.
The bottom 3 lines can do that all day and/or thats why career bottom six trash like Mikheyev is force fed on the top line. (Plus laff, josh, pdg etc) Let him forecheck and grind and then pass the ephin puck to ep or kuz to actually score.
You signed Kuzmenko to score pts, he did exactly that very well just a few months ago.
Square peg round hole, pdg in a forced top 6 role didnt last too long either, not enough skill. Why does ep look like underwhelming semi frequently, not enough skill on his line. Play your best players in positions to succeed, cant find your confidence eating popcorn in the pressbox.
Its not science equations.