Both players were on the scoresheet in Nottingham Forest's first pre-season friendly, against Odense BK in Sweden on Wednesday night.
Against a backdrop of financial fair play sanctions which have restricted Freedman's ability to move in the transfer market, the success of both the Reds and their manager in 2015/16 will be largely dictated by his ability to get more out of the squad at his disposal.
Blackstock and Paterson are cases in point with the duo having started only 15 Championship games between them last season.
Speaking to the official NNFC website after the Odense game, Freedman said he had been impressed with Paterson's pre-season to date and was working on finding the 'correct position' for the player, linked with Wolves earlier this summer.
On Blackstock he commented: "We’ve been working very hard with his fitness, so hopefully he can produce more performances than he did last year."