He played 13 more games for the Stars the next season before moving to the New York Islanders in 1997 as a free agent.
He received more ice time with the Islanders with his best season coming in 1998–99, scoring 14 goals and 16 assists for 30 points in 60 games.
In all, Lawrence played 142 regular season games, scoring 18 goals and 26 assists for 44 points and collected 115 penalty minutes.
He joined as a player/assistant coach, but missed a majority of the 2001–02 season due to a knee injury.
[3] In 2015, he was hired as the head coach of the West Michigan Wolves, a Tier III junior team in the North American 3 Hockey League, after six seasons as a youth coach in West Michigan.