The reason teams overspend on money and term in UFA is that there is no other acquisition cost.
When you're paying huge money to guys into their twilight years, you pay more at the end of the deal in lost opportunity costs, or you may have to factor in the cost to get rid of that contract later. It's not free when you get stuck with some dude who you're paying that kind of money to when they're like 37 or 38 ... sure you saved on giving up an asset, but you tied up future millions for several years on a guy who's not remotely worth it (or potentially have to spend assets to unload it).
I think any team that would be acquiring him would probably (correctly) view him as a complimentary middle 6 winger who can also chip in on special teams but can't be relied upon anymore to put up big numbers or play top minutes.
I think there's more than a few teams that think they could put him with their best players and have him feed off of them in a big way. Complementary? Sure, but in the best sense of the word.
Those guys -- from Mangiapane and Smith this offseason to Toffoli and Mantha last year to Colton and Rakell in years past -- tend to go for second round picks plus expiring salary filler plus maybe a fourth or a fifth.
The thing that separates him, IMO, is that unlike most of those guys, it would surprise no one if Kreider had a great playoff where he pops in a bunch of goals. The guy is a proven playoff goal scorer.
It was only last year Kreider was over 70 points and had 39 goals. Hell, he had a pretty hot goal scoring start to THIS season, with like 8 goals in 13. Are we now suggesting that everyone thinks he's suddenly "lost it" in the span of about a month or so? That he'll never get any of it back? If that's the case, why any interest at all? Go get a different middle 6'er who costs less, sure ... but my guess is the "upside" of a Frank Vatrano or something will be a hell of a lot less. You might not have to pay as much, but you also get back a much much lower ceiling.
I like some of those other guys, but it'd be pretty shocking if most of them had gone bonkers in the playoffs as a rental.