The European leagues are more lucrative, both money and skill-wise, for the locked-out players to go. The top leagues in Europe are Russia's Kontinental Hockey League and Sweden's Swiss A-league offer top dollar and top talent, but they don't come without any restrictions. The KHL allowes only three locked-out players per team, and only one of those can be foreign. The Swiss A-league has similar restrictions as well. They only allow four imported players per roster. Another Swiss league, the Swedish Elite League, does not allow played to join without signing a contract for a full season, meaning that players who sign there cannot return to the NHL if the lockout ends. These types of leagues attract the league's best players. Top players Ilya Kovalchuk, reigning MVP Evgeni Malkin, and Alex Ovechkin have all signed with teams in the KHL. Top players that signed with the Swiss leagues include Rich Nash, Jason Spezza, and Mark Streit.
If players don't get an offer overseas or just want to stay in the states, their primary options are the ECHL and CHL. ECHL stands for the East Coast Hockey League, and they advertise themselves as hockey's "AA" league. It is a 23-team league where less experience hockey players play. CHL stands for Central Hockey League and, unlike the ECHL, it is not affiliated with the NHL. It is an independent professional league that consist of 14 teams. Both leagues have been around awhile as the ECHL recently celebrated 25 years in existent while the CHL celebrated 20. Like the European leagues, there are rules in place to prevent just anyone from joining each league. A pro player that has accrued 260 or more games in the NHL or top European leagues can indeed play in the ECHL. The catch is that a team can have only four players that fit this description. The CHL is a little more lenient as it allows six players per team that have played 301 games or more of professional hockey. The other league that you will see players play in is the AHL, or American Hockey League. Being the NHL's top affiliate, it has the strictest rules for locked-out players to join. Players still on entry-level contracts or were on last year's AHL playoff or "clear day" roster can sign with AHL teams. These three leagues are all obvious for young players who will not make the cut to go over and play in Europe. More experienced players with young families could also join these leagues on one of the two previously listed ECHL and CHL exemptions.
Players who don't join a league are the ones skating and training with each other in pockets of the US. So far players are meeting in Minnesota and Boston to train together. They also hold scrimmages against each other. These players obviously are not making any money doing this, but they do get to play against fellow NHL players more often than the players who are joining leagues. These players are also the ones most willing to play in charity games in the US and Canada. During the last lockout that cancelled the 04-05 season, players participated in charity games in Quebec. Players that decide to train together and play for charity are usually well established players that have families and so they cannot just go and play in a different league during the work stoppage.
The winners of the lockout are obviously the players that have the capability of going overseas to play as they receive the most money and play the most competitive hockey. The downside to playing in Europe is that the players have to pay for insurance as the European contracts do not recognize the NHL insured contract the players have. The losers are the ones that can't even get to independent workouts and must train on their own. I would call it a wash between the players playing in the minors and the players training in groups because players in the minor leagues are being paid minimum wage as both the ECHL and CHL have weekly team salary cups just north of 10,000 dollars. As you can see, there is plenty of hockey to be played this fall. It just won't be televised nationally in the US. Of course this means that the players can afford to sit out longer if needed. It sounds to me like we're in for a long extended offseason. The question remains, though, should they stay or should they go?
References
http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/id/8382911/nhl-officially-locks-players-cba-expires
http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/id/8403261/playing-europe-russia-easy-accomplish-locked-players
http://espn.go.com/blog/nhl/post/_/id/19310/what-options-do-nhlers-have-in-north-america
http://www.echl.com/history-s12371
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Hockey_League
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