At the 2011 NHL Entry Draft, Columbus severed their ties with Filatov, trading him to the Ottawa Senators in exchange for a third-round pick. Filatov left his family vacationing in the Dominican Republic and joined the Senators for their development camp at Scotiabank Place in Ottawa. He made the Senators out of training camp, but was a healthy scratch several times, splitting his time with Ottawa and the Binghamton Senators of the AHL. In November 2011, the "Ottawa Citizen"'s Allen Panzeri reported from sources in Columbus that Filatov had refused to play the style the Blue Jackets asked of him, saying to his coach, "Filly [Filatov] don't do rebounds." In December, the Senators offered Filatov the choice to play the rest of the season with CSKA Moscow of the KHL and Filatov agreed. Senators general manager Bryan Murray suggested it was better for his development as Murray felt that Filatov needed to work on becoming stronger and compete harder to make it in the NHL. Head coach Paul MacLean felt Filatov's struggles in the NHL were surprising, considering he had 12 points in 15 games in the AHL. Filatov himself stated that he had to get better. MacLean had hoped that Filatov would have stayed and worked on his game in Binghamton, but Murray explained that it was more lucrative for Filatov to play in the KHL than at Binghamton, and did not block the transfer. Filatov did not immediately agree to terms with CSKA. For a few days it appeared that Filatov would not sign a contract with CSKA, so the Senators assigned him to Binghamton and threatened to suspend him in order to remove him from the Senators' salary cap. On December 18, 2011, Filatov agreed to a contract with CSKA Moscow.