If it happens this season, the CHL teams won't pay much to join the ECHL, as a group they have much more value sticking together, essentially holding the Western ECHL teams hostage, since the ECHL can't keep the good Western ECHL teams in the league if they lose all the California teams to the AHL.
Will the combined league be the ECHL, yes, clearly due to the ECHL PHPA, since the CHL PHPA still hasn't been agreed to, a quick look to the CHL PHPA league link still doesn't show an signed agreement. But the ECHL will have added three teams with attendance around 5,000 a night (Mizzou, Wichita, and Tulsa, with Rapid City and Allen well above 4,000). Next season, without Ontario, Bakersfield,and Stockton, all possibly going to the AHL, the Western ECHL teams will spend too much time playing three games in three nights in Alaska, since no other ECHL teams are willing to go there. A four team Western ECHL Division, without the California teams, isn't viable, especially with Alaksa being one of them.
Here's a map, do the math. Alaska's a much bigger problem without the California teams than Brampton is in the CHL and that's not going to change, ever.
https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=zOZ01sv2DGic.kVqCa65_4w2c&authuser=0&hl=en
Al?
RLR