Ya know technically they wont be replaced by "scabs", they will be replaced by guys who likely would have been called up to the big time eventually. Case in point, the AHL's Chicago Wolves are the Atlanta Thrashers top farm club. The Wolves' #1 Goaltender is Kari Lehtonen whom if the NHL had a season would have made his major league debut this year. As the Thrashers top farmclub, they have several guys who played with the parent team in the past, Ben Simon, JP Vigier, Kip Brennan, etc. These guys are NHL players who were re-assigned to the AHL level prior to the lockout. The same situation goes on I'm sure for all of the AHL teams, so it's not a situation where all the NHL teams will have is inexperienced players, they will have guys who have either logged NHL time already or were going to be called up anyway.
A true "scabs" situation would have been the 1987 NFL strike, where NFL teams played with guys who for the most part did not play in the NFL or were with the practice squads. A situation where there was no minor league system so guys were coming in from all over like the CFL, semi-pro teams, Europe, etc...