The Bruins are entering the final week of preparation in advance of this weekend’s NHL draft at Pittsburgh’s Consol Energy Center. The first round is Friday night. Rounds two through seven will take place on Saturday.

The Bruins have the No. 24 pick. In the previous two drafts, they had selections in the top 10, courtesy of the Phil Kessel trade with Toronto. In 2010, they drafted Tyler Seguin with the No. 2 pick. Last year, they nabbed Dougie Hamilton with the ninth overall selection.

“There’s a lot of defensemen – good defensemen in this draft,” GM Peter Chiarelli said during a conference call. “If we don’t get a defenseman, we’ll be fine. There’s always some good players. We’re hoping that some will slip. I’ve never seen a number of defensemen this large.”

Among the top defensemen are Matt Dumba, Ryan Murray, Morgan Rielly, Cody Ceci, and Jacob Trouba. The Bruins are hoping one or several from that group slip to No. 24.

Up front, the Bruins could be interested in big forwards such as Henrik Samuelsson and Stefan Matteau.

Currently, the Bruins also have picks in the third, fifth, sixth, and seventh rounds. They lost their second-round selection as a condition of the Tomas Kaberle trade. They swapped their fourth-round pick to Carolina for Joe Corvo.