The challenge for many players making the transition from juniors to the NHL is learning what worked in juniors doesn't work in the NHL and adapting. That transition is made more difficult when they're playing for a losing NHL team and don't respect what the coaching staff is telling them.
For Filatov, things came pretty easily when he started his pro career. He was scoring nearly a point a game in the AHL - primarily on the power play and cherry picking. He wasn't doing all that much work in the defensive zone and everything worked out in the AHL.
Then he came up to the NHL and scored a hat trick against the Wild in a rout against a backup goalie battling the flu.
Both Filatov and Brule were penciled into the lineup as soon as they were drafted. They likely saw themselves as better than many of the Jackets' forwards. If they had been drafted by a team who typically always made the playoffs, then there would have been more motivation to change how they played. When what worked in juniors worked in the preseason and AHL, why change and listen to the coaching staff of a team who can't score or win?
Filatov did seem to be making the transition but the hit playing against the Sharks in Stockholm in 2010 made him a gun shy on going to the net. And you could see him thinking on the ice - especially in Ottawa. It wasn't natural - he was trying to figure out where the coaches wanted him to be which meant he was always 3 steps behind.
Great article about Nikita on Hitch and what lead him to go back to Russia -
Nikita Filatov has kind words for coach he hated