I think applications for the "hot" NOCs will fill up as quickly as they did last year, if not quicker. Here's why I think so:
Take for example, NOC 1112 - Financial Investment Analysts. Last year, the quota for that category was filled about 22 days after applications were opened on May 4th. What prevented the cap being reached sooner was that last year was the first year that CIC introduced the criteria that all foreign degrees need to be evaluated whether they were equivalent to Canadian credentials. That delayed many people's applications, especially those that did not get theirs evaluated by WES.
This time, however, many who did not apply last year because their quota was reached by the time they got their credentials evaluated or were rejected because their caps were reached are likely to have all the relevant documents at hand. Hence, I expect at least some NOCs, and especially the "hot" NOCs such as 1112, 2174, etc to fill up quick, if not quicker than last year.