Not to go all "we used Thornton's cap space to sign Chara and Savard" (even though Sturm, Stuart, and Primeau already had around the same cap hit).... but most of Hertl's $6.75M went to Tofolli. Veteran top 6 for veteran top 6 (32 year old F for ~30.5 year old F) four years. Course the benefit- aside from the risk of Hertl's knees- is moving him out helped the tank. He can come back on an Skinner type deal when Vegas buys him out!
To your broader point, there's a whole lot more caproom in each of the next few years. A lot of that will need to go to raises for Celebrini, Smith, and Eklund. However there's $25M coming off over the next three years (Vlasic, Couture, Jones, Karlsson, Burns, Goodrow) that won't be missed at all from last year's roster. Hopefully Couture makes a valiant recovery, and more importantly can have a great life after hockey. Wennberg, Granlund, Kunin, Ceci, Ferraro, Walman, and Koistin will need to be replaced but that represents another $25M up in two seasons.
I'd see if Eklund and Zetterlund (ideal 5/6th winger) will sign long-term deals that overpay now, but will provide surplus value once Celebrini and Smith are off their ELCs.