List below are the Top 30 Salary Cap Numbers for centers heading into the 2011-12 NHL season. Due to front-loading contracts (back-loaded in some cases), and teams having to deal with the salary cap, a players cap number takes precedence over their actual salary.
| Rk. | Player | Team | 2011-12 Cap Number | 2011-12 Salary |
| 1 | Henrik Lundqvist | NYR | $6,875,000 | $6,875,000 |
| 2 | Cam Ward | CAR | $6,300,000 | $6,300,000 |
| 3 | Ryan Miller | BUF | $6,250,000 | $6,250,000 |
| 4 | Niklas Backstrom | MIN | $6,000,000 | $6,000,000 |
| 5 | Miikka Kiprusoff | CGY | $5,833,000 | $6,000,000 |
| 6 | Ilya Bryzgalov | PHI | $5,667,000 | $10,000,000 |
| 7 | Roberto Luongo | VAN | $5,333,000 | $6,716,000 |
| 8 | Martin Brodeur | NJD | $5,200,000 | $5,200,000 |
| 9 | Tim Thomas | BOS | $5,000,000 | $5,000,000 |
| 10 | Marc-Andre Fleury | PIT | $5,000,000 | $5,500,000 |
| 11 | Jonas Hiller | ANA | $4,500,000 | $4,500,000 |
| 12 | Rick DiPietro | NYI | $4,500,000 | $4,500,000 |
| 13 | Antti Niemi | SJS | $3,800,000 | $3,200,000 |
| 14 | Nikolai Khabibulin | EDM | $3,750,000 | $3,750,000 |
| 15 | Jaroslav Halak | STL | $3,750,000 | $3,500,000 |
| 16 | Kari Lehtonen | DAL | $3,550,000 | $3,700,000 |
| 17 | Pekka Rinne | NAS | $3,400,000 | $4,000,000 |
| 18 | Craig Anderson | OTT | $3,188,000 | $2,750,000 |
| 19 | Dwayne Roloson | TBL | $3,000,000 | $3,000,000 |
| 20 | Steve Mason | CLB | $2,900,000 | $2,600,000 |
| 21 | Semyon Varlamov | COL | $2,833,000 | $2,500,000 |
| 22 | Carey Price | MTL | $2,750,000 | $3,000,000 |
| 23 | Corey Crawford | CHI | $2,667,000 | $3,250,000 |
| 24 | Jimmy Howard | DET | $2,250,000 | $2,250,000 |
| 25 | Antero Niittymaki | SJS | $2,000,000 | $2,000,000 |
| 26 | Mike Smith | PHX | $2,000,000 | $2,000,000 |
| 27 | Chris Mason | WPG | $1,850,000 | $2,100,000 |
| 28 | Jonathan Quick | LAK | $1,800,000 | $1,800,000 |
| 29 | James Reimer | TOR | $1,800,000 | $2,200,000 |
| 30 | Sergei Bobrovsky | PHI | $1,750,000 | $900,000 |
