Listed below are the Top 30 Salary Cap Hits for defenseman heading into the 2010-11 NHL Season. We’ve used the salary cap number over the total salary for this season, due to the front loading of contracts. If a free agent signs and makes the list, we’ll update accordingly, but that is unlikely to happen.
Take a look at Top 30 salary cap numbers by position:
Centers | Left Wingers | Right Wingers | Defenseman | Goaltender
| Rk. | Player | Team | Age | 2010-11 Cap Hit | 2010-11 Salary |
| 1 | Zdeno Chara | Boston | 33 | $7,500,000 | $7,500,000 |
| 2 | Brian Campbell | Chicago | 31 | $7,140,000 | $7,140,000 |
| 3 | Jay Bouwmeester | Calgary | 26 | $6,680,000 | $6,600,000 |
| 4 | Dan Boyle | San Jose | 33 | $6,667,000 | $6,667,000 |
| T5 | Wade Redden | NY Rangers | 33 | $6,500,000 | $6,500,000 |
| Ed Jovanovski | Phoenix | 34 | $6,500,000 | $6,000,000 | |
| Dion Phaneuf | Toronto | 25 | $6,500,000 | $7,000,000 | |
| 8 | Kimmo Timonen | Philadelphia | 35 | $6,333,000 | $7,000,000 |
| 9 | Nicklas Lidstrom | Detroit | 40 | $6,200,000 | $6,200,000 |
| 10 | Brian Rafalski | Detroit | 36 | $6,000,000 | $6,000,000 |
| T11 | Bryan McCabe | Florida | 35 | $5,750,000 | $4,150,000 |
| Andrei Markov | Montreal | 31 | $5,750,000 | $5,750,000 | |
| 13 | Lubomir Visnovsky | Anaheim | 33 | $5,600,000 | $6,000,000 |
| 14 | Duncan Keith | Chicago | 26 | $5,551,000 | $8,000,000 |
| T15 | Roman Hamrlik | Montreal | 36 | $5,500,000 | $5,500,000 |
| Sergei Gonchar | Ottawa | 36 | $5,500,000 | $5,500,000 | |
| 17 | Sheldon Souray | Edmonton | 33 | $5,400,000 | $4,500,000 |
| 18 | Mike Green | Washington | 24 | $5,250,000 | $5,000,000 |
| T19 | Michal Rozsival | NY Rangers | 31 | $5,000,000 | $4,000,000 |
| Paul Martin | Pittsburgh | 29 | $5,000,000 | $5,000,000 | |
| 21 | Chris Pronger | Philadelphia | 35 | $4,921,000 | $7,600,000 |
| T22 | Ron Hainsey | Atlanta | 29 | $4,500,000 | $5,000,000 |
| Scott Hannan | Colorado | 31 | $4,500,000 | $4,500,000 | |
| Shea Weber | Nashville | 24 | $4,500,000 | $4,500,000 | |
| Mike Komisarek | Toronto | 28 | $4,500,000 | $6,000,000 | |
| Dan Hamhuis | Vancouver | 27 | $4,500,000 | $5,000,000 | |
| T27 | Anton Volchenkov | New Jersey | 28 | $4,250,000 | $4,250,000 |
| Eric Brewer | St. Louis | 31 | $4,250,000 | $4,500,000 | |
| Tomas Kaberle | Toronto | 32 | $4,250,000 | $4,250,000 | |
| T30 | John-Michael Liles | Colorado | 29 | $4,200,000 | $4,425,000 |
| Keith Ballard | Vancouver | 27 | $4,200,000 | $4,200,000 |